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RECORDS
Photo J. Russell and Sons.
1882. Captain of H.M.S. "Inflexible."
RECORDS
BY
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET
LORD FISHER
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO
MCMXIX
/•\> A^'jS'o^
Preambl
e
^^^^HE main purpose of
^* ^^^this second book is
"" obvious from its title.
^^^^^It's mostly a collec-
tion of '* Records" confirming
what has already been written,
and relates almost exclusively
to years after 1902. As Lord
Rosebery has said so well,
"The war period in a man's
life has its definite limits " ;
and that period is what
interests the general reader,
and for that reason all attempt
at a biography has been
discarded.
In our present distress we
certainly want badly just
now Nelson's ''Light from
Heaven " I Nelson had what
the Mystics describe as his
"seasons of darkness and
desertion." His enfeebled body
and his mind depressed used
at times to cast a shade on
his soul, such as we now feel
as a Nation, but (if I re-
member right) it is Southey
who says that the Sunshine
which succeeded led Nelson
to believe that it bore with it
a prophetic glory, and that
the light that led him on was
"Light from Heaven." We
don't see that "Light" as yet.
But England never succumbs.
PREFACE
Napoleon at St. Helena told us what all Englishmen
have ever instinctively felt — that we should remain a
purely Maritime Power ; instead, we became in this
War a Conscript Nation, sending Armies of Millions
to the Continent. If we stuck to the Sea, said
Napoleon, we could dictate to the World ; so we could.
Napoleon again said to the Captain of the British
Battleship " Bellerophon " : " Had it not been for
you English, I should have been Emperor of the
East, but wherever there was water to float a ship,
we were sure to find you in ^he way." (Yes ! we
had ships only drawing two feet of water with six-inch
guns, that went up the Tigris and won Bagdad,
Others, similar, went so many thousand miles up
the Yangtsze River in China that they sighted the Moun-
tains of Thibet. Another British Ship of War so many
thousand miles up the Amazon River that she sighted
the Mountains of Peru, and there not being room to
turn she came back stern first. In none of these cases
had any War Vessel ever before been seen till these
British Vessels investigated those waters and astounded
the inhabitants.)
vu
PREFACE
Again, Napoleon praised our Blockades (Les Anglais
bloquent tr^s bien) ; but very justly of our Diplomacy
he thought but ill. Yes, alas ! What a Diplomacy
it has been ! ! ! If our Blockade had been permitted
by the Diplomats to have been effective, it would
have finished the War at once. Our Diplomats had
Bulgaria in their hands and lost her. It was ** Too
Late " a year after to oifer her the same terms as
she had asked the year before. We " kow-towed "
to the French when they rebuffed our request for
the English Army to be on the Sea Flank and
to advance along the Belgian Coast, supported by the
British Fleet ; and then there would have been no
German Submarine War. At the very beginning of
the War we deceived the German Ambassador in London
and the German Nation by our vacillating Diplomacy.
We wrecked the Russian Revolution and turned it into
Bolshevism.
I mention these matters to prove the effete, apathetic,
indecisive, vacillating Conduct of the War — the War
eventually being won by an effective Blockade.
viu
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PACK
Early Years i
CHAPTER II
Further Memories of King Edward and Others . . 24
CHAPTER III
The Bible, and other Reflections 38
CHAPTER IV
Episodes 50
CHAPTER V
Democracy 69
CHAPTER VI
Public Speeches 79
ix
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VII
rAGE
The Essentials of Sea Fighting 88
CHAPTER VIII
Jonah's Gourd 97
CHAPTER IX
Naval Problems 127
CHAPTER X
Naval Education 156
CHAPTER XI
Submarines 173
CHAPTER XII
Notes on Oil and Oil Engines 189
CHAPTER XIII
The Big Gun 204
CHAPTER XIV
Some Predictions , , . 211
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XV
PAGE
The Baltic Project 217
CHAPTER XVI
The Navy in the War 225
Postscript . . 249
APPENDIX I
Lord Fisher's Great Naval Reforms . . ■ . . 251
APPENDIX II
Synopsis of Lord Fisher's Career 259
Index 271
XI
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1882. Captain of H.M.S. " Inflexible " . . Frontispiece
Facing page
King Edward VII. and the Czar, 1909 .... 16
Two Photographs of King Edward VII. and Sir John
Fisher on Board H.M.S. " Dreadnought " on her
First Cruise 33
Photograph, taken and sent to Sir John Fisher by the
Empress Marie of Russia, of a Group on Board H.M.S.
Standard," 1909 48
(<
A Group on Board H.M.S. " Standard," 1909 ... 65
A Group on Board H.M.S. " Standard," 1909 ... 80
A Group at Langham House. Photograph taken and
SENT TO Sir John Fisher by the Empress Marie of
Russia 97
Sir John Fisher going on Board the Royal Yacht. . 112
Sir John Fisher and Sir Colin Keppel (Captain of the
Royal Yacht) 129
xiii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Facuig page
" The Dauntless Three," Portsmouth, 1903 . . . 160
Some Shells for i8-inch Guns 177
Lord Fisher's Proposed Ship, H.M.S. " Incomparable,"
shown alongside H.M.S. " Dreadnought "... 208
The Submarine Monitor Mi.. .... 240
XIV
RECORDS
RECORDS
CHAPTER I
EARLY YEARS
Of all the curious fables IVe ever come across I quite
think the idea that my mother was a Cingalese Princess of
exalted rank is the oddest ! One can't see the foundation
of it!
" The baseless fabric of a vision ! "
My godfather, Major Thurlow (of the 90th Foot), was the
'* best man " at my mother's wedding, and very full of
her beauty then — she was very young — possibly it was
the " Beaute du diable ! " She had just emerged from
the City of London, where she was born and had spent
her life ! One grandfather had been an officer under
Nelson at Trafalgar, and the other a Lord Mayor !
He was Boy dell, the very celebrated engraver. He left
his fortune to my grandmother, but an alien speculator
(a scoundrel) robbed her of it. My mother's father
had, I believe, some vineyards in Portugal, of which
the wine pleased William the Fourth, who, I was told,
came to his counting house at 149, New Bond Street,
to taste it ! Next door Emma, Lady Hamilton, used to
clean the door steps ! She was housemaid there.
RECORDS
I don't think the Fishers at all enjoyed my father (who
was a Captain in the 78th Highlanders) marrying into the
Lambes ! The " City '* was abhorred in those days, and
the Fishers thought of the tombs of the Fishers in
Packington Church, Warwickshire, going back to the
dark ages ! I, myself, possess the portrait of Sir Clement
Fisher, who married Jane Lane, who assisted Charles the
Second to escape by disguising his Majesty as her groom
and riding behind him on a pillion to Bristol.
The Fishers' Baronetcy lapsed, as my ancestor after
Sir Clement Fisher's death wouldn't pay 3^500 in the
nature of fees, I believe. 1 don't think he had the money—
so my uncle told me. This uncle, by name John Fisher,
was over 60 years a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford,
and told me the story of an ancestor who built a wing of
Balliol at Oxford, and they — ^the College Authorities —
asked him whether they might place some inscription in
his honour on the building ! He replied :
" Fisher — non amplius,"
(but someone else told me it was : —
" Verbum non amplius Fisher ! ")
My uncle explained that his ancestor only meant just
to put his name, and that's all.
But the College Authorities put it all on :
" Fisher ! Not another blessed word is wanted."
One of my ancestors changed his motto and took these
words (I have them on a watch !) : —
" Ubi voluntas — ibi piscatur."
(We fish where we like).
2
EARLY YEARS
A Poacher, I suppose ! or was there a ** double
entendre " ?
I'm told in the old days you could change your motto
and your crest as often as you liked, but not your coat of
arms !
A succession of ancestors went and dwelt at Bodmin, in
Cornwall — all clergymen down to my grandfather, who
was Rector of Wavendon, in Bucks, where is a tablet to
his brother, who was killed close to the Duke of Welling-
ton at Waterloo, and who ordered his watch to be sent to
my uncle's relatives with the dent of the bullet that killed
him, and that watch I now have.
My uncle was telling this story at a table d'hote at
Brussels a great many years afterwards, and said he had
been unable to identify the spot, when an old white-
haired gentleman at the table said he had helped to bury
him, and next day he took him to the place.
I remember a Dean glancing at me in a Sermon on the
Apostles, when he said the first four were all Fishers !
On the death of Sir Robert Fisher of Packington in
1739, a number of family portraits were transferred
apparently to the Rev. John Fisher of Bodmin, born
January 27th, 1708. The three principal portraits are a
previous Sir Robert Fisher, his son Sir Clement Fisher,
who died 1683, and Jane Lane, his wife. Another por-
trait is a second Sir Clement Fisher, son of the above and
of Jane Lane. This Sir Clement Fisher died 1709, and
was succeeded by his only brother, Sir Robert Fisher,
who died a.d. 1739, one year before his niece, Mary
Fisher, wife of Lord Aylesford. All these portraits were
3 B 2
RECORDS
transmitted in direct inheritance to Sir John Fisher. The
four generations of Reverend John Fishers of Bodmin,
commencing with John Fisher born 1708, were none of
them in a position to incur the heavy expenses involved
for their assumption of the Baronetcy. They were
descended from a brother of the Sir Robert Fisher who
lived before the year a.d. 1600.
I was born in 1841, the same year as King Edward VII.
There was never such a heahhy couple as my father and
mother. They never married for money — they married
for love. They married very young, and I was their
first child. All the physical advantages were in my favour,
so I consider I was absolutely right, when I was nine
months old, in refusing to be weaned.
" She walks in beauty like the iiight
Of cloudless climes and starry skies ;
And aU that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes :
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies."
These lines were written by Lord Byron of my god-
mother. Lady Wilmot Horton, of Catton Hall, Burton-
on-Trent. She was still a very beautiful old lady at 73
years of age when she died.
One of her great friends was Admiral Sir William
Parker (the last of Nelson's Captains), and he, at her
request, gave me his nomination for entering the Navy.
He had two to give away on becoming Port Admiral at
Plymouth. He gave the other to Lord Nelson's own
niece, and she also filled in my name, so I was doubly
nominated by the last of Nelson's Captains, and my first
4
EARLY YEARS
ship was the " Victory " and it was my last ! In the
" Victory " log-book it is entered, ** July 12th, 1854,
joined Mr. John Arbuthnot Fisher," and it is also en-
tered that Sir John Fisher hauled down his flag on October
2ist, 1904, on becoming First Sea Lord.
A friend of mine (a yellow Admiral) was taken
prisoner in the old French War when he was a Midship-
man ten years old, and was locked up in the fortress of
Verdun. He so amused me in my young days by telling
me that he gave his parole not to escape ! as if it mattered
what he did when he was only four foot nothing ! And he
did this, he told me, in order to learn French ; and when
he had learned French, to talk it fluently, he then can-
celled his parole and was locked up again and then he
escaped ; alone he did it by filing through the iron bars of
his prison window (the old historic method), and wended
his way to England. I consider this instance a striking
testimony to the inestimable benefit of sending little boys
to sea when they are young ! What splendid Nelsonic
qualities were developed !
But it was quite common in those days of my old yellow
Admiral for boys to go to sea even as young as seven
years old. My present host's grandfather went to sea as
a Midshipman at seven years old ! Afterwards he was
Lord Nelson's Signal Midshipman, his name was Hamil-
ton, and his grandson was Midshipman with me in two
ships. He is now the 13th Duke of Hamilton ! It is
interesting as a Nelsonic legend that the wife of the 6th
Duke of Hamilton (she was one of the beautiful Miss
Gunnings ; she was the wife of two Dukes and the
5
RECORDS
mother of four) peculiarly befriended Emma, Lady
Hamilton, and recognised her, as so few did then (and,
alas ! still fewer now, as one of the noblest women who
ever lived — one mass of sympathy she was !
The stories of what boys went through then at sea were
appalling. I have a corroboration in lovely letters from a
little Midshipman who was in the great blockade of Brest
by Admiral Cornwallis in 1802. This little boy was after-
wards killed just after Trafalgar. He describes seeing
the body of Nelson on board ship on its way to
Portsmouth. This little Midshipman was only
eleven years old when he was killed ! This is how he
describes the Midshipman's food : " We live on beef
which has been ten or eleven years in a cask, and on biscuit
which makes your throat cold in eating it owing to the
maggots, which are very cold when you eat them ! like
calves-foot jelly or blomonge — being very fat indeed ! "
(It makes one shudder ! ) He goes on again : " We drink
water the colour of the bark of a pear tree with plenty
of little maggots and weevils in it, and wine, which is
exactly like bullock's blood and sawdust mixed together ** ;
and he adds in his letter to his mother : " I hope I shall not
learn to swear, and by God's assistance I hope I shall not ! "
He tried to save the Captain of his Top (who had been
at the '* Weather earing ") from falling from aloft. This
is his description : " The hands were hurried up to reef
topsails, and my station is in the foretop. When the men
began to lay in from the yards (after reefing the topsails)
one of them laid hold of a slack rope, which gave way, and
he fell out of the top on deck and was dashed to pieces
6
EARLY YEARS
and very near carried me out of the top along with him as
I was attempting to lay hold of him to save him ! 1 1 "
Our little friend the Midshipman was eight years old
at this time ! What a picture ! this little boy trying to
save the sailor huge and hairy ! His description to his
mother of Cornwallis's Fleet is interesting : " We have
on board Admiral Graves, who came in his ten-oared
barge, and as soon as he put his foot on shipboard the
drums and fifes began to play, and the Marines and all
presented their arms. We are all prepared for action, all
our guns being loaded with double shot. We have a
fine sight, which is the Grand Channel Fleet, which con-
sists of 95 sail of the line, each from 120 down to 64 guns.'*
That is the Midshipman of the olden day, and one often
has misgivings that the modern system of sending boys to
sea much older is a bad one, when such magnificent
results were produced by the old method, more especially
as in the former days the Captain had a more paternal
charge of those little boys coming on board one by one, as
compared with the present crowd sent in batches of big
hulking giants, some of them. However, there is more
to learn now than formerly, and possibly it's impossible
(all the entrance examination I had to pass was to write
out the Lord's Prayer, do a rule of three sum and
drink a glass of sherry !) ; but one would like to
give it a trial of sending boys to sea at nine years old.
Our little hero tried to save the life of the Captain
of his Top when he was only eight years old ! Still, the
Osborne system of Naval education has its great
merits ; but it has been a grievous blow to it, depart-
7
RECORDS
ing from the original conception of entry at eleven years
of age.
However, the lines of the modern Midshipman are laid
in pleasant places ; they get good food and a good night's
rest. Late as I came to sea in 1854, I had to keep either
the First or Middle Watch every night and was always
hungry ! Devilled Pork rind was a luxury, and a Spanish
Onion with a Sardine in the Middle Watch was Paradise !
In the first ship I was in we not only carried our fresh
water in casks, but we had some rare old Ship's Biscuit
supplied in what were known as *' bread-bags." These
bread-bags were not preservative ; they were creative.
A favourite amusement was to put a bit of this biscuit on
the table and see how soon all of it would walk away.
In fact one midshipman could gamble away his '* tot " of
rum with another midshipman by pitting one bit of
biscuit against another. Anyhow, whenever you took a
bit of biscuit to eat it you always tapped it edgeways on
the table to let the " grown-ups " get away.
The Water was nearly as bad as the Biscuit. It was
turgid — it was smelly — it was animally. I remember so
well, in the Russian War (1854-5), being sent with the
Watering Party to the Island of Nargen to get fresh water,
as we were running short of it in this old Sailing Line
of Battleship I was in (there was no Distilling Apparatus
in those days). My youthful astonishment was how on
earth the Lieutenant in charge of the Watering Party
discovered the Water. There wasn't a lake and there
wasn't a stream, but he went and dug a hole and there
was the water ! However, it may be that he carried out
8
EARLY YEARS
the same delightful plan as my delicious old Admiral in
China. This Admiral's survey of the China Seas is one
of the most celebrated on record. He told me himself
that this is how he did it. He used to anchor in some
convenient place every few miles right up the Coast of
China. He had a Chinese Interpreter on board. He sent
this man to every Fishing Village and offered a dollar
for every rock and shoal. No rock or shoal has ever
been discovered since my beloved Admiral finished his
survey. Perhaps the Lieutenant of the Watering Party
gave Roubles ! ^
I must mention here an instance of the Simple Genius of
the Chinese. A sunken ship, that had defied all European
efforts to raise her, was bought by a Chinaman for a mere
song. He went and hired all the Chinamen from'an adjacent
Sponge Fishery and bought up several Bamboo Plant-
ations where the bamboos were growing like grass. The
way they catch sponges is this — The Chinaman has no
diving dress — he holds his nose — a leaden weight attached
to his feet takes him down to where the sponges are —
he picks the sponges — evades the weight — ^and rises.
They pull up the weight with a bit of string afterwards.
The Chinese genius I speak of sent the men down with
bamboos, and they stuck them into the sunk ship,
and soon " up she came " ; and the Chinaman said :
*' Ship hab Bamboo —
No hab Water ! "
It's a pity there's no bamboo dodge for Sunk Reput-
ations !
9
<
RECORDS
An uncle of mine had a snuff box made out of the
Salt Beef, and it was french-polished ! That was his beef
— and ours was nearly as hard.
There were many brutalities when I first entered the
Navy — now mercifully no more. For instance, the day
I joined as a little boy I saw eight men flogged — and I
fainted at the sight.
Not long ago I was sitting at luncheon next to a dis-
tinguished author, who told me I was *' a very interesting
person ! " and wanted to know what my idea of life was,
I replied that what made a life was not its mature years
but the early portions when the seed was sown and the
blossom so often blasted by the frost of unrecognition.
It was then that the fruit of after years was pruned to
something near the mark of success. ** Your great career
was when you were young,** said a dear friend to me the
other day. I entered the Navy penniless, friendless and
forlorn. While my mess-mates were having jam, I had
to go without. While their stomachs were full, mine was
often empty. I have always had to fight like hell, and
fighting like hell has made me what I am. Hunger and
thirst are the way to Heaven I
When I joined the Navy, in 1854, the last of Nelson's
Captains was the Admiral at Plymouth. The chief object
in those days seemed to be, not to keep your vessel
efficient for fighting, but to keep the deck as white as
snow and all the ropes taut. We Midshipmen were
allowed only a basin of water to wash in, and the basin
was inside one's sea-chest ; and if anyone spilt a drop
of water on the deck he was made to holy-stone it himself.
10
EARLY YEARS
And that reminds nae, as I once told Lord Esher, when I
was a young First Lieutenant, the First Sea Lord told me
that he never washed when he went to sea, and he didn*t
see ** why the Devil the Midshipmen should want to
wash now ! " I remember one Captain named Leth-
bridge who had a passion for spotless decks ; and it used
to put him in a good temper for the whole day if he could
discover a *' swab-tail,'* or fragment of the swabs with
which the deck was cleaned, left about. One day he
happened to catch sight of a Midshipman carefully
arranging a few swab-tails on deck in order to gratify
*' old Leather-breeches' " lust for discovering them ! And
as for taut ropes, many of my readers will remember the
old story of the lady (on the North American station)
who congratulated the Captain of a " family " ship
(officered by a set of fools) because " the ropes hung in
such beautiful festoons I "
There was a fiddler to every ship, and when the anchor
was being weighed, he used to sit on the capstan and play,
so as to keep the men in step and in good heart. And on
Sundays, everyone being in full dress, epaulettes and all,
the fiddler walked round the decks playing in front of the
Captain. I must add this happened in a Brig com-
manded by Captain Miller.
After the " Victory," my next ship was the " Calcutta,"
and I joined it under circumstances which Mr. A. G.
Gardiner has narrated thus : —
" One day far back in the fifties of last century a sailing
ship came round from Portsmouth into Plymouth Sound,
where the fleet lay. Among the passengers was a little
II
RECORDS
midshipman fresh from his apprenticeship in the
* Victory.* He scrambled aboard the Admiral's ship,
and with the assurance of thirteen marched up to a
splendid figure in blue and gold, and said, handing him a
letter : * Here, my man, give this to the Admiral.* The
man in blue and gold smiled, took the letter, and opened
it. ' Are you the Admiral ? ' said the boy. * Yes, I'm
the Admiral.' He read the letter, and patting the boy on
the head, said : ' You must stay and have dinner with
me.* * I think,* said the boy, ' I should like to be getting
on to my ship.* He spoke as though the British Navy had
fallen to his charge. The Admiral laughed, and took
him down to dinner. That night the boy slept aboard the
* Calcutta,' a vessel of 84 guns, given to the British Navy
by an Indian merchant at a cost of 3^84,000. It was the
day of small things and of sailing-ships. The era
of the ironclad and the * Dreadnought ' had not
dawned."
I think I must give the first place to one of the first of
my Captains who was the seventh son of the last Vice-
Chancellor of England, Sir Lancelot Shadwell. The
Vice-Chancellor used to bathe in the Thames with his
seven sons every morning. My Shadwell was about the
greatest Saint on earth. The sailors called him, somewhat
profanely. ** Our Heavenly Father.*' He was once heard
to say, " Damn,** and the whole ship was upset. When,
as Midshipmen, we punished one of our mess-mates for
abstracting his cheese, he was extremely angry with us, and
asked us all what right we had to interfere with his cheese.
He always had the Midshipmen to breakfast with him, and
when we were seasick he gave us champagne and ginger-
bread nuts. As he went in mortal fear of his own steward,
who bossed him utterly, he would say : ** I think the
12
EARLY YEARS
aroma has rather gone out of this champagne. Give it to
the young gentlemen.'* The steward would reply :
'* Now you know very well, Sir, the aroma ain't gone out of
this 'ere champagne " ; but all the same we got it. He
always slept in a hammock, and I remember he kept his
socks in the head clews ready to put on in case of a squall
calling him suddenly on deck. I learned from him nearly
all that I know. He taught me how to predict eclipses
and occultations, and I suppose I took more lunar obser-
vations than any Midshipman ever did before.
Shadwell's appearance on going into a fight I must
describe. We went up a Chinese river to capture a pirate
stronghold. Presently the pirates opened fire from a
banana plantation on the river bank. We nipped
ashore from the boats to the banana plantation. I
remember I was armed to the teeth, like a Greek
brigand, all swords and pistols, and was weighed
down with my weapons. We took shelter in the
banana plantation, but our Captain stood on the river
bank. I shall never forget it. He was dressed in a pair
of white trousers, yellow waistcoat and a blue tail coat with
brass buttons and a tall white hat with a gold stripe up
the side of it, and he was waving a white umbrella to
encourage us to come out of the bananas and go for the
enemy. He had no weapon of any sort. So (I think
rather against our inclinations, as the gingall bullets were
flying about pretty thick) we all had to come out and go for
the Chinese.
Once the Chinese guns were firing at us, and as the shell
whizzed over the boat we all ducked. ** Lay on your oars,
13
RECORDS
my men," said Shadwell ; and proceeded to explain very
deliberately how ducking delayed the progress of the
boat— apparently unaware that his lecture had stopped
its progress altogether !
r^ His sole desire for fame was to do good, and he re-
quested for himself when he died that he should be
buried under an apple tree, so that people might say :
" God bless old Shadwell ! " He never flogged a man in
his life. When my Captain was severely wounded,
I being with him as his Aide-de-Camp (we landed
1,100 strong, and 463 were killed or wounded), he
asked me when being sent home what he could do for
me. I asked him to give me a set of studs with his motto
on them : " Loyal au mort," and I have worn them daily
for over sixty years. When this conversation took place,
the Admiral (afterwards Sir James Hope, K.C.B.) came to
say good-bye to him, and he asked my Captain what he
could do for him. He turned his suflFering body towards
me and said to the Admiral : *' Take care of that boy."
And so he did.
Admiral Hope was a great man, very stern and stately,
the sort of man everybody was afraid of. His nickname
was composed of the three ships he had commanded :
** Terrible. . . Firebrand. . . Majestic." He turned to
me and said : *' Go down in my boat " ; and everyone
in the Fleet saw this Midshipman going into the Admiral's
boat. He took me with him to the Flagship ; and I got
on very well with him because I wrote a very big hand
which he could read without spectacles.
He promoted me to Lieutenant at the earliest possible
14
EARLY YEARS
date, and sent me on various services, which greatly /
helped me. ^
My first chance came when Admiral Hope sent me to
command a vessel in Chinese waters on special service.
His motto was " Favouritism is the secret of efficiency,"
and though I was only nineteen he put me over the heads
of many older men because he believed that I should do
what I was told to do, and carry out the orders of the
Admiral regardless of consequences. And so I did,
although I made all sorts of mistakes and nearly lost the
ship. When I came back everyone seemed to expect that
I should be tried by Court-Martial ; but the Admiral
only cared that I had done what he wanted done ; and
then he gave me command of another vessel.
The Captain of the ship I came home in was another
sea wonder, by name Oliver Jones. He was Satanic ;
yet I equally liked him, for, like Satan, he could disguise
himself as an angel ; and I believe I was the only officer
he did not put under arrest. For some reason I got on
with him, and he made me the Navigating Officer of the
ship. He told me when I first came on board that he
thought he had committed every crime under the sun
except murder. I think he committed that crime while
I was with him. He was a most fascinating man. He
had such a charm, he was most accomplished, he was a
splendid rider, a wonderful linguist, an expert navigator
and a thorough seaman. He had the best cook, and the
best wines ever afloat in the Navy, and was hospitable to
an extreme. Almost daily he had a lot of us to dinner,
but after dinner came hell ! We dined with him in tail
15
RECORDS
coat and epaulettes. After dinner he had sail drill, or
preparing the ship for battle, and persecution then did
its utmost. ;^
Once, while I was serving with him, we were frozen
in out of sight of land in the Gulf of Pechili in the North
of China. And there were only Ship's provisions,
salt beef, salt pork, pea soup, flour, and raisins. Oliver
Jones was our Captain, or we wouldn't have been frozen
in. The Authorities told him to get out of that Gulf
and that's why he stayed in. I never knew a man who
so hated Authority. I forget how many degrees below
zero the thermometer was, and it was only by an un-
precedented thaw that we ever got out. And with this
intense cold he would often begin at four o'clock in the
morning to prepare for battle, and hand up every shot
in the ship on to the Upper Deck, then he'd strike Lower
Yards and Topmasts (which was rather a heavy business),
and finish up with holystoning the Decks, which opera-
tion he requested all the Officers to honour with their
presence. And when we went to Sea we weren't quite
sure where we would go to (I remember hearing a
Marine Officer say that we'd got off the Chart altogether).
Till that date I had never known what a delicacy a sea-
gull was. We used to get inside an empty barrel on the
ice to shoot them, and nothing was lost of them. The
Doctor skinned them to make waistcoats of the skins —
the insides were put on the ice to bait other seagulls,
and a rare type of onion we had (that made your eyes
water when you got within half a mile of them) made
into stuffing got rid of the fishy taste.
i6
King Edward VII. and the Czar, 1909.
EARLY YEARS
On the way home he landed me on a desert island
to make a survey. He was sparse in his praises ;
but he wrote of me : ** As a sailor, an officer, a Navigator
and a gentleman, I cannot praise him too highly." Con-
fronted with this uncommon expression of praise from
Oliver Jones, the examiners never asked me a question.
They gave me on the spot a first-class certificate.
This Captain Oliver Jones raised a regiment of cavalry
for the Indian Mutiny and was its Colonel, and Sir Hope
Grant, the great Cavalry General in the Indian Mutiny,
said he had never met the equal of Oliver Jones as a cavalry.,
leader. He broke his neck out hunting.
When I was sent to the Hythe School of Musketry as a
young Lieutenant, I found myself in a small Squad of
Officers, my right hand man was a General and my left
hand man a full Colonel. The Colonel spent his time
drawing pictures of the General. (The Colonel was really
a wonderful Artist.) The General was splendid. He
was a magnificent -looking man with a voice like a bull
and his sole object was Mutiny ! He hated General
Hay, who was in Command of the Hythe School of
Musketry. He hated him with a contemptuous disdain.
In those days we commenced firing at the target only a
few hundred yards off. The General never hit the
target once ! The Colonel made a beautiful picture of
him addressing the Parade and General Hay : " Gentle-
men ! my unalterable conviction is that the bayonet is
the true weapon of the British Soldier ! " The beauty
of the situation was that the General had been sent to
Hythe to qualify as Inspector- General of Musketry.
17 c
RECORDS
After some weeks of careful drill (without firing a shot)
we had to snap caps (that was to get our nerves all
right, I suppose !) ; the Sergeant Instructor walked
along the front of the Squad and counted ten copper
caps into each outstretched hand. At that critical
moment General Hay appeared on the Parade. This
gave the General his chance ! With his buU-Hke voice
he asked General Hay if it was believable after these
weeks of incessant application that we were going (each
of us) to be entrusted with ten copper caps I When we
were examined viva voce we each had to stand up to
answer a question (like the little boys at a Sunday
School). The General was asked to explain the lock
of the latest type of British Rifle. He got up and stated
that as he was neither Maskelyne and Cooke nor the
Davenport Brothers (who were the great conjurers of
that time) he couldn't do it. Certainly we had some
appalling questions. One that I had was, ** What do
you pour the water into the barrel of the rifle with when
you are cleaning it ? " Both my answers were wrong.
I said, " With a tin pannikin or the palm of the hand."
The right answer was " with care " ! Another question
in the written examination was, '* What occurred about
this time ? " Only one paragraph in the text-book had
those words in it " About this time there occurred, etc." !
All the same I had a lovely time there ; the British Army
was very kind to me and I loved it. The best shot in
the British Army at that date was a confirmed drunkard
who trembled like a leaf, but when he got his eye on
the target he was a bit of marble and '* bull's eyes "
i8
EARLY YEARS
every time ! So, as the Scripture says, never judge by
appearance. Keble, who wrote the ** Christian Year,'*
was exceedingly ugly, but when he spoke Heaven shone
through ; so I was told by one who knew him.
It's going rather backwards now to speak of the time
when I was a Midshipman of the " Jolly Boat " in 1854,
in an old Sailing Line of Battleship of eighty-four guns.
I think I must have told of sailing into Harbour every
morning to get the Ship's Company's beef (gale or no
gale) from Spithead or Plymouth Sound or the Nore.
We never went into harbour in those days, and it was
very unpleasant work. I always felt there was a chance
of being drowned. Once at the Nore in mid- winter all
our cables parted in a gale and we ran into the Harbour
and anchored with our hemp cable (our sole remaining
joy) ; it seemed as big round as my small body was then,
and it lay coiled like a huge gigantic serpent just before
the Cockpit. Nelson must have looked at a similar
hemp cable as he died in that corner of the Cockpit
which was close to it. All Battleships were exactly
alike. You could go ashore then for forty years and
come on board again quite up to date. On our Quarter
Deck were brass Cannonades that had fired at the French
Fleet at Trafalgar. No one but the Master knew about
Navigation. I remember when the Master was sick and
the second Master was away and the Master's Assistant
had only just entered the Navy, we didn't go to Sea
till the Master got out of bed again. There was a
wonderfully smart Commander in one of the other
Battleships who had the utmost contempt for Science ;
19 c 2
RECORDS
he used to say that he didn't believe in the new-fangled
sighting of the guns, ** Your Tangent Sights and Dis-
parts ! " What he found to be practically the best
procedure was a cold veal pie and a bottle of rum to
the first man that hit the target. We have these same
" dears " with us now, but they are disguised in a clean
white shirt and white kid gloves, but as for believing in
Engineers — '* Sack the Lot " !
It is very curious that we have no men now of great
conceptions who stand out above their fellows in any
profession, not even the Bishops, which reminds me of
a super-excellent story I've been told in a letter. My
correspondent met by appointment three Bishops for
an expected attack. Before they got to the business
of the meeting, he said, " Could their Lordships
kindly tell him in the case of consecrated ground
how deep the consecration went, as he specially
wanted to know this for important business purposes."
They wrangled and he got off his " mauvais quart
d'heure." My correspondent explained to me that his
old Aunt (a relation of Mr. Disraeli) said to him when
he was young " Alfred, if you are going to have a row
with anyone — always you begin ! "
I come to another episode of comparatively early years.
Yesterday I heard from a gentleman whom I had not
seen for thirty-eight years, and he reminded me of a
visit to me when I was Captain of the " Inflexible." I
was regarded by the Admiral Superintendent of the
Dockyard as the Incarnation of Revolution. (What
upset him most was I had asked for more water-closets
20
EARLY YEARS
and got them.) This particular episode I'm going to
relate was that I wanted the incandescent light. Lord
Kelvin had taken me to dine with the President of the
Royal Society, where for the first time his dining table
was lighted with six incandescent lamps, provided by
his friend Mr. Swan of Newcastle, the Inventor in this
Country of the Incandescent light, as Mr. Edison was
in America (it was precisely like the discovery of the
Planet Neptune when Adams and Leverrier ran neck
and neck in England and France). After this dinner
I wrote to Mr. Swan to get these lamps for the " In-
flexible," and he sent down the friend who wrote me
the letter I received yesterday (Mr. Henry Edmunds)
and we had an exhibition to convert this old fossil of
an Admiral Superintendent.
Here I'll put in Mr. Henry Edmunds's own words : — •
At last we got our lamps to glow satisfactorily ; and
at that moment the Admiral was announced. Captain
Fisher had warned me that I must be careful how I
answered any questions, for the Admiral was of the stern
old school, and prejudiced against all new-fangled notions.
The Admiral appeared resplendent in gold lace, and
accompanied by such a bevy of ladies that I was strongly
reminded of the character in ** H.M.S. Pinafore "
" with his sisters, and his cousins, and his aunts." The
Admiral inunediately asked if I had seen the " Inflexible."
I replied that I had. " Have you seen the powder
magazine .? " " Yes ! I have been in it." '* What
would happen to one of these little glass bubbles in the
event of a broadside ? " I did not think it would affect
them. '* How do you know ? You've never been in a
ship during a broadside ! " I saw Captain Fisher's eye
fixed upon me ; and a sailor was dispatched for some
21
RECORDS
gun-cotton. Evidently everything had been ready pre-
pared, for he quickly returned with a small tea tray about
two feet long, upon which was a layer of gun-cotton,
powdered over with black gun-powder. The Admiral
asked if I was prepared to break one of the lamps over
the tray. I replied that I could do so quite safely, for
the glowing lamp would be cooled down by the time
it fell amongst the gun-cotton. I took a cold chisel,
smashed a lamp, and let it fall. The Company saw the
light extinguished, and a few pieces of glass fall on the
tray. There was no flash, and the gun-powder and
gun-cotton remained as before. There was a short
pause, while the Admiral gazed on the tray. Then he
turned, and said to Lord Fisher, " We'll have this light
on the * Inflexible.* "
And that was the introduction of the incandescent
light into the British Navy.
Talking about water-closets, I remember so well long
ago that one of the joys on board a Man-of-War on
Christmas Day was having what was called a " Free
Tank," that is to say, you could go and get as much
fresh water as ever you liked, all other days you were
restricted, so much for drinking and so much for washing.
The other Christmas Joy was " Both sides of the * Head *
open " ! What that meant was that right in the Bows
or Head of the Ship were situated all the Bluejackets*
closets, and on Christmas Day all could be used ! "all
were free.'* Usually only half were allowed to be open
at a time. It was a quaint custom, and I always thought
outrageous. " Nous avons change tout cela."
When I was out in the West Indies a French Frigate
came into the Harbour with Yellow Fever on board.
My Admiral asked the Captain of the English Man-of-
22
EARLY YEARS
War that happened to be there what kindness he had
shown the French Frigate on arrival ? He said he had
sent them the keys of the Cemetery. This Captain
always took his own champagne with him and put it
under his chair. I took a passage with him once in
his Ship, he had a Chart hanging up in his cabin like
one of those recording barometers, which showed
exactly how his wine was getting on. When he came
to call on the Admiral at his house on shore, he always
brought a small bundle with him, and after his Official
visit he'd go behind a bush in the garden and change
into plain clothes ! All the same, this is the stuff that
heroes are made of. Heroes are always quaint.
23
r
CHAPTER II
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD AND OTHERS
King Edward paid a visit to Admiralty House,
Portsmouth, 19th February to 22nd February, 1904,
while I was Commander-in-Chief there ; and after he
had left I received the following letter from Lord
KnoUys : —
Buckingham Palace,
22nd February, 1904.
My Dear Admiral,
I am desired by the King to write and thank you
again for your hospitality.
His Majesty also desires me to express his great
appreciation of all of the arrangements, which were
excellent, and they reflect the greatest credit both on
you and on those who worked under your orders.
I am very glad the visit was such a great success and
went off so well. The King was evidently extremely
pleased with and interested in everything.
Yours sincerely,
Knoll Ys.
I can say that I never more enjoyed such a visit.
The only thing was that I wasn't Master in my ovm house,
the King arranged who should come to dinner and
24
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD
himself arranged how everyone should sit at table ; I
never had a look in. Not only this, but he also had the
Cook up in the morning. She was absolutely the best
cook I've ever known. She was cheap at £ioo a year.
She was a remarkably lovely young woman. She died
suddenly walking across a hay field. The King gave
her some decoration, I can't remember what it was.
Some little time after the King had left — one night I
said to the butler at dinner, " This soup was never made
by Mrs. Baker ; is she ill ? " The butler repHed, " No,
Sir John, Mrs. Baker isn't ill, she has been invited by
His Majesty the King to stay at Buckingham Palace."
And that was the first I had heard of it. Mrs. Baker
had two magnificent kitchenmaids of her own choosing
and she thought she wouldn't be missed. I had an
interview with Mrs. Baker on her return from her
Royal Visit, and she told me that the King had said to
her one morning before he left Admiralty House,
Portsmouth, that he thought she would enjoy seeing
how a Great State Dinner was managed, and told her
he would ask her to stay at Buckingham Palace or
Windsor Castle to see one ! Which is only one more
exemplification of what I said of King Edward in my
first book, that he had an astounding aptitude of appealing
to the hearts of both High and Low.
My friends tell me I have done wrong in omitting
countless other little episodes of his delightful nature.
" One touch of nature makes the whole world kin ! "
This is a sweet little episode that occurred at
Sandringham. The King was there alone and Lord
25
J
RECORDS
Redesdale and myself were his only guests. The King
was very fond of Redesdale, and rightly so. He was a
most delightful man. He and I were sitting in the
garden near dinner time, the King came up and said
it was time to dress and he went up in the lift, leaving
Redesdale in the garden. Redesdale had a letter to
write and rushed up to his bedroom to write the letter
behind a screen there was between him and the door ;
the door opened and in came the King, thinking he had
left Redesdale in the garden, and went to the wash-
hand-stand and felt the hot water-can to see if the water
was hot and went out again. Perhaps his water had
been cold, but anyhow he came to see if his guest's
was all right.
On another occasion I went down to Sandringham with
a great party, I think it was for one of Blessed Queen
Alexandra's birthdays (I hope Her Majesty will forgive
me for telling a lovely story presently about herself).
As I was zero in this grand party, I slunk off to my room
to write an important letter ; then I took my coat off,
got out my keys, unlocked my portmanteau and began
unpacking. I had a boot in each hand ; I heard somebody
fumbling with the door handle and thinking it was the
Footman whom Hawkins had allocated to me, I said
'* Come in, don't go humbugging with that door handle I *'
and in walked King Edward, with a cigar about a yard
long in his mouth. He said (I with a boot in each hand !)
" What on earth are you doing ? " " Unpacking, Sir."
** Where's your servant } ** " Haven't got one. Sir."
** Where is he ? " ** Never had one, Sir ; couldn't afford
26
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD
it." "Put those' boots down; sit in that arm chair."
And he went and sat in the other on the other side of
the fire. I thought to myself, " This is a rum state of
affairs ! Here's the King of England sitting in my
bedroom on one side of the fire and Fm in my shirt
sleeves sitting in an armchair on the other side ! "
" Well," His Majesty said, " why didn't you come and
say, ' How do you do ' when you arrived ? " I said, ** I
had a letter to write, and with so many great people
you were receiving I thought I had better come to my
room." Then he went on with a long conversation,
until it was only about a quarter of an hour from dinner
time, and I hadn't unpacked ! So I said to the King,
** Sir, you'll be angry if Fm late for dinner, and no doubt
your Majesty has two or three gentlemen to dress you,
but I have no one." And he gave me a sweet smile
and went off.
All the same, he could be extremely unpleasant ; and
one night I had to send a telegram for a special messenger
to bring down some confounded Ribbon and Stars,
which His Majesty expected me to wear. I'd forgotten
the beastly things (Fm exactly like a Christmas Tree
when Fm dressed up). One night when I got the
King's Nurse to dress me up, she put the Ribbon of
something over the wrong shoulder, and the King
harangued me as if I'd robbed a church. I didn't like
to say it was his Nurse's fault. Some of these Ribbons
you put over one shoulder and some of them you have
to put over the other ; it's awfully puzzling. But the
King was an Angel all the same, only he wasn't always
27
RECORDS
one. Personally I don't like perfect angels, one doesn't
feel quite comfortable with them. One of Cecil Rhodes *s
secretaries wrote his Life, and left out all his defects ;
it was a most unreal picture. The Good stands out all
the more strikingly if there is a deep shadow. I think
it's called the Rembrandt Effect. Besides, it's unnatural
for a man not to have a Shadow, and the thought just
occurs to me how beautiful it is — '' The Shadow of
Death " ! There couldn't be the Shadow unless there
was a bright light ! The Bright Light is Immortality !
Which reminds me that yesterday I read Dean Inge's
address at the Church Congress the day before on
Immortality. If I had anything to do with it, I'd make
him Archbishop of Canterbury. I don't know him,
but I go to hear him preach whenever I can.
The Story about Queen Alexandra is this. My
beloved friend Soveral, one of King Edward's treasured
friends, asked me to lunch on Queen Alexandra's sixtieth
birthday. After lunch all the people said something
nice to Queen Alexandra, and it came to my turn, I
said to Her Majesty, ** Have you seen that halfpenny
newspaper about your Majesty's birthday ? " She said
she hadn't, what was it ? I said these were the words : —
" The Queen is sixty to-day !
May she live till she looks it ! "
Her Majesty said " Get me a copy of it ! " (Such a
thing didn't exist !) About three weeks afterwards (Her
Majesty has probably forgotten all about it now, but she
hadn't then) she said, " Where's that halfpenny news-
28
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD
paper ? " I was staggered for a moment, but recovered
myself and said " Sold out, Ma'am ; couldn't get a
copy ! " (I think my second lie was better than my
first !) But the lovely part of the story yet remains. A
year afterwards she sent me a lovely postcard which I
much treasure now. It was a picture of a little girl
bowling a hoop, and Her Majesty's own head stuck on,
and underneath she had written : —
*' May she live till she looks it ! "
I treasure the remembrances of all her kindnesses to
me as well as that of her dear Sister, the Dowager
Empress of Russia. The trees they both planted at
Kilverstone are both flourishing ; but strange to say the
tree King Edward planted began to fade away and died
in May, 1910, when he died — ^though it had flourished
luxuriantly up till then. Its roots remain untouched—
and a large mass of " Forget-me-nots " flourishes
gloriously over them.
For very many consecutive years after 1886 I went to
Marienbad in Bohemia (eight hundred miles from
London and two thousand feet above the sea and one
mass of delicious pine woods) to take the waters there.
It's an ideal spot. The whole place is owned by a
Colony of Monks, settled in a Monastery (close by)
called Tepl, who very wisely have resisted all eff^orts
to cut down the pine woods so as to put up more
buildings.
I had a most serious illness after the Bombardment of
29
RECORDS
Alexandria due to bad living, bad water, and great
anxiety. The Admiral (Lord Alcester) had entrusted
me (although I was one of the junior Captains in the
Fleet) with the Command on shore after the Bombard-
ment. Arabi Pasha, in command of the Rebel Egyptian
Army, was entrenched only a few miles off, and I had
but a few hundreds to garrison Alexandria. For the
first time in modern history we organised an Armoured
Train. Nowadays they are as common as Aeroplanes.
Then it excited as much emotion as the Tanks did.
There was a very learned essay in the Pall Mall Gazette.
I was invalided home and, as I relate in my
** Memories," received unprecedented kindness from
Queen Victoria (who had me to stay at Osborne) and from
Lord Northbrook (First Lord of the Admiralty), who
gave me the best appointment in the Navy. I always
have felt great gratitude also to his Private Secretary at
that time (Admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont). For three
years I had recurrence of Malarial Fever, and tried
many watering places and many remedies all in vain.
I went to Marienbad and was absolutely cured in three
weeks, and never relapsed till two years ago, when I was
ill again and no one has ever discovered what was the
matter with me ! Thanks be to God — I believe I am
now as well as I ever was in all my whole life, and
I can still waltz with joy and enjoy champagne when
I can get it (friends, kindly note !).
At Marienbad I met some very celebrated men, and
the place being so small I became great friends with
them. If you are restricted to a Promenade only a
30
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD
few hundred yards long for two hours morning and even-
ing, while you are drinking your water, you can't help
knowing each other quite well. How I wish I could
remember all the splendid stories those men told me !
Campbell-Bannerman, Russell (afterwards Chief Jus-
tice), Hawkins (afterwards Lord Brampton), the first
Lord Burnham, Labouchere (of Truth), Yates (of the
World), Lord Shand (a Scottish Judge), General Gallifet
(famous in the Franco-German War), Rumbold (Am-
bassador at Vienna), those were some of the original
members. Also there were two Bevans (both delightful)
— ^to distinguish them apart, they called the ** Bar-
clay Perkins " Bevan " poor " Bevan, as he was supposed
to have only two millions sterling, while the other one
was supposed to have half a dozen ! (That was the story.)
I almost think I knew Campbell-Bannerman the best.
He was very delightful to talk to. I have no Politics.
But in after years I did so admire his giving Freedom to
the Boers. Had he lived, he would have done the same
to Ireland without any doubt whatever. Fancy now
60,000 British soldiers quelling veiled Insurrection and
a Military Dictator as Lord Lieutenant and Ireland
never so prosperous ! I have never been more moved
than in listening to John Redmond's brother, just back
from the War in his Soldier's uniform, making the most
eloquent and touching appeal for the Freedom of Ireland !
It came to nothing. I expect Lord Loreburn (who was
Campbell- Banner man's bosom friend) will agree with
me that had Campbell-Bannerman only known what a
literally overwhelming majority he was going to obtain
31
RECORDS
at the forthcoming Election, he would have formed a
very different Government from what he did, and I
don't believe we should have had the War. King
Edward liked him very much. They had a bond in
their love of all things French. I don't believe any
Prime Minister was ever so loved by his followers as
was Campbell-Bannerman.
Sir Charles Russell, afterwards Chief Justice, was
equally delightful. We were so amused one day (when
he first came to Marienbad) by the Head Waiter whis-
pering to us that he was a cardsharper ! The Head Waiter
told us he had seen him take a pack of cards out of his
pocket, look at them carefully, and then put them back !
Which reminds me of a lovely incident in my own
career. I had asked the Roman Catholic Archbishop to
dinner ; he was a great Saint — ^we played cards after
dinner. We sat down to play — (one of my guests was a
wonderful conjurer). " Hullo ! " I said, " Where are
the cards gone to ? " The conjurer said, ** It doesn't
matter : the Archbishop will let us have the pack of
cards he always carries about in his pocket " ! The
Holy Man furtively put his hand in his pocket (thinking
my friend was only joking !) and dash it ! there they
were ! I never saw such a look in a man's face ! (He
thought Satan was crawling about somewhere.)
Lord Burnham was ever my great Friend, he was also
a splendid man. I should like to publish his letters.
I have spoken of Labouchere elsewhere. As Yates,
of the World y Labouchere, and Lord Burnham (those
three) walked up and down the Promenade together
32
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD
(Lord Burnham being stout), Russell called them " The
World, the Flesh, and the Devil/' I don't know if it
was original wit, but it was to me.
Old Gallifet also was splendid company ; he had a
silver plate over part of his stomach and wounds all
over him. I heard weird stories of how he shot down
the Communists.
Sir Henry Hawkins I dined with at some Legal
Assemblage, and as we walked up the Hall arm in arm
all the Law Students struck up a lovely song Fd never
heard before : " Mrs. 'enry 'awkins," which he greatly
enjoyed. On one occasion he told me that when he
was still a Barrister, he came late into Court and asked
what was the name of the Barrister associated with him
in the Case ? The Usher or someone told him it was
Mr. Swan and he had just gone out of the Court. (I
suppose he ought to have waited for Sir Henry.) Any-
how Sir Henry observed that he didn't like him *' taking
liberties with his Leda." I expect the Usher, not being
up in Lempriere's Dictionary, didn't see the joke !
Dear Shand, who was very small of stature, was
known as the " Epitome of all that was good in Man."
He reeked with good stories and never told them twice.
Queen Victoria fell in love with him at first sight (not-
withstanding that she preferred big men) and had him
made a Lord. She asked after his wife as " Lady
Shand " ; and, being a Scottish Law Lord, he replied
that *' Mrs. Shand was quite well." There are all
sorts of ways of becoming a Lord.
Rumbold knocked the man down who asked him
33 D
RECORDS
for his ticket ! He wasn't going to have an Ambassador
treated like that (as if he had travelled without a ticket I)
As the Czechs hate the Germans, I look forward to
going back to my beloved Marienbad once more every
year. The celebrated Queen of Bohemia was the
daughter of an English King ; her name was Elizabeth.
The Enghsh Ambassador to the Doge of Venice, Sir
Henry Wootton, wrote some imperishable lines in her
praise and accordingly I worshipped at Wootton*s
grave in Venice. The Hnes in his Poem that I love
are :—
" You Common People of the Skies,
What are You, when the Moon shall rise ? "
In dictating the Chapter on " Some Personalities,'* that
appears in my '' Memories," I certainly should not
have overlooked my very good friend Masterton-
Smith (Sir J. E. Masterton- Smith, K.C.B.). I can
only say here (as he knows quite well) that never
was he more appreciated by anyone in his life than
by me. Numberless times he was simply invaluable,
and had his advice been always taken, events would
have been so different in May 191 5 I
I have related in *' Memories " how malignancy went
to the extent not only of declaring that I had sold my
country to the Germans (so beautifully denied by Sir
Julian Corbett), but also that I had formed " Syndicates"
and *' Rings " for my own financial advantage, using
my official knowledge and power to further my nefarious
schemes for making myself quickly rich ! I have denied
this by the Income Tax Returns — andlhave also explained
34
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD
I am still poor — very poor — because one-third of my
pension goes in income tax and the remaining two-thirds
is really only one-third because of depreciation of the
pound sterling and appreciation of food prices !
But let that pass. However, I've been told I ought to
mention I had another very brilliant opportunity of
becoming a millionaire in a.d. 1910, but declined.
And also it has been requested of me to state the fact
that never in all my life have I belonged to any company
of any sort beyond possessing shares, or had any place
of profit outside the Navy. That is sufficiently definite,
I think, to d n my enemies and satisfy my friends.
My finances have always been at a low ebb (even
when a Commander-in-Chief), as I went on the principle
of ** whatever you do, do it with all your might," and
there is nothing less conducive to " the fighting efficiency
of a Fleet and its instant readiness for war " than a
Stingy Admiral ! The applications for subscriptions
which were rained upon me I countered with this in-
estimable memorandum in reply, invented by my
sympathetic Secretary : — '* The Admiral deeply regrets
being unable to comply with your request, and he
deplores the reason — ^but his Expenditure is in excess of
his Receipts." I always got sympathy in return, more
especially as the Local Applicants were largely responsible
for the excess of expenditure.
At an early period of my career I certainly did manage
on very little, and it is wonderful what a lot you can
get for your money if you think it over. I got breakfast
for tenpence, lunch for a shilling and dinner for eighteen
35 D 2
RECORDS
pence and barley water for nothing and a bed for three
and sixpence (but my bedroom had not a Southern aspect).
The man I hired a bedroom from was like a Father
to me, and I have never had such a polish on my shoes.
(I remember saying to a German Boots, pointing to my
badly-cleaned shoes, ** Spiegel ! " — looking-glass ; he
took away the shoes and brought them back shining
like a dollar. Hardly anyone will see the joke !) But
what I am most proud of is that, financial necessity once
forcing me to go to Marienbad quite alone, I did a three
weeks' cure there, including the railway fare and every
expense, for twenty-five pounds. I don't believe any
Economist has ever beaten this. I preserve to this day
the details of every day's expenditure, which I kept in
a little pocket-book, and read it all over only a couple of
days ago, without any wish for past days.
I recall with delight first meeting my beloved old
friend, Sir Henry Lucy ; he had with him Sir F. C. Gould,
who never did a better service to his country than when
he portrayed me as an able seaman asking the Con-
scriptionists (in the person of Lord Roberts) whether
there was no British Navy. The cartoon was repro-
duced in my " Memories " (p. 48). In my speech at
the Lord Mayor's Banquet in 1907 (see Chapter VI
of this volume) I had spoken of Sir Henry Lucy as
** gulled by some Midshipman Easy of the Channel
Fleet " (Sir Henry had been for a cruise in the Fleet),
who stuffed him up that the German Army embarking
in the German Fleet was going to invade England !
And in the flippant manner that seems so to annoy people,
36
FURTHER MEMORIES OF KING EDWARD
I observed that Sir Henry might as well talk of embarking
St. Paul's Cathedral on board a penny steamer as of
embarking the German Army in the German Fleet !
He and Gould came up to me at a seance on board the
" Dreadnought," and had a cup of tea as if I had been a
lamb !
On the occasion of that same speech, a Bishop looked
very sternly at me, because in my speech, to show
how if you keep on talking about war and always looking
at it and thinking of it you bring it on, I instanced Eve,
who kept on looking at the apple and at last she plucked
it ; and in the innocence of my heart I observed that had
she not done so we should not have been now bothered
with clothes. When I said this in my speech I was
following the advice of one of the Sheriffs of the City of
London, sitting next me at dinner, who told me to fix
my eyes, while I was speaking, on the corner of the
Ladies' Gallery, as then everyone in the Guildhall could
hear what I said. And such a lovely girl was in that
corner, I never took my eyes off her, all the time, and that
brought Eve intojmy mind !
37
CHAPTER III
THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
I HAVE just been listening to another very eloquent
sermon from Dr. Hugh Black, whom I mention else-
where in this book (see Chapter V). Nearly all these
Presbyterians are eloquent, because they don*t write
their sermons.
The one slip our eloquent friend made in his sermon
was in saying that the a.d. i6ii edition of the Bible (the
Authorised Version) was a better version of the Bible
than the Great Bible of a.d. 1539, which according to the
front page is stated to be as follows : —
" The byble in English that is to say the content of all
the Holy Scripture both of the old and new testament
truly translated after the verity of the Hebrew and Greek
texts by the diligent study of diverse excellent learned men
expert in the aforesaid tongues.
" Printed by Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch.
Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum.
IS39"
It is true, as the preacher said, that the 161 1 edition,
the Authorised Version, is more the literal translation of
38
THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
the two, but those " diverse excellent learned men "
translated according to the spirit and not the letter of the
original ; and our dear brother (the preacher) this morning
in his address had to acknowledge that in the text he had
chosen from the 27th Psalm and the last verse thereof,
the pith and marrow which he rightly seized on — being the
words " Wait on the Lord '* — were more beautifully
rendered in the great Bible from which (the Lord be
thanked !) the English Prayer Book takes its Psalms, and
which renders the original Hebrew not in the literal words,
" Wait on the Lord," but " Tarry thou the Lord's leisure,**
and goes on also in far better words than the Authorised
Version with the rest of the verse : "Be strong and He
shall comfort thine heart."
When we remonstrated with the Rev. Hugh Black after
his sermon, he again gainsaid, and increased his heinous-
ness by telling us that the word " Comfort," which doesn't
appear in the 161 1 version, was in its ancient signification
a synonym for " Fortitude " ; and the delightful outcome
of it is that that is really the one and only proper prayer —
to ask for Fortitude or Endurance. You have no right to
pray for rain for your turnips, when it will ruin somebody
else's wheat. You have no right to ask the Almighty —
in fact, He can't do it — to make two and two into five.
The only prayer to pray is for Endurance, or Fortitude.
The most saintly man I know, daily ended his prayers
with the words of that wonderful hymn :
" Renew my will from day to day,
Blend it with thine, and take away
All that now makes it hard^to say,
Thy will^be done."
39
RECORDS
It must not be assumed that I am a Saint in any way in
making these remarks, but only a finger-post pointing the
way. The finger-post doesn't go to Heaven itself, yet
it shows the way. All I want to do is to stick up for those
holy men who were not hide-bound with a dictionary,
and gave us the spirit of the Holy Word and not the
Dictionary meaning.
Here I feel constrained to mention a far more beautiful
illustration of the value of those pious men of old.
In Brother Black's i6i i version, the most famous of the
Saviour's words : " Come unto me all ye that labour and
are heavy laden and I will give you rest," is, in the 1539
version, *' I will refresh you ! " There is no rest this side
of Heaven. Job (iii, 17) explains Heaven as '* Where
the wicked cease from troubling and where the weary be
at rest." The fact is — ^the central point is reached by
the Saviour when He exemplifies the Day of Perfection
by saying : ** In that day ye shall ask me nothing,"
I have been told by a great scientist that for the tide
to move a pebble on the beach a millionth of an inch
further would necessitate an alteration in the whole
Creation. And then we go and pray for rain, or to beat
our enemies !
Again, I say — The only thing to pray for is Endurance.
Some people in sore straits try to strike bargains with
God, if only He will keep them safe or relieve them in the
present necessity. It's a good story of the soldier who,
with all the shells exploding round him was heard to
pray : " O Lord, if You'll only get me out of this d — d
mess I will be good, I will be good ! "
40
THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
I am reminded of what I call the " Pith and Marrow " \
which the pious men put at the head of every chapter of
the Bible, and which, alas ! has been expunged in
the literary exactitudes of the Revised Version. Re-
gard Chapter xxvi, for instance, of Proverbs — how
it is all summed up by those '* diverse excellent
learned men." They wrote at the top of the chapter
" Observations about Fools." Matthew xxii : the Saviour
" Poseth the Pharisees." Isaiah xxi : " The set time."
Isaiah xxvii (so true and pithy of the Chapter !) :
'* Chastisements differ from Judgments " ; and in
Mark xv : *' The Clamour of the Common People " — •
descriptive of what's in the chapter. All these headings,
in my opinion, as regards those ancient translators, are
for them a *' Crown of Glory and a Diadem of Beauty " ;
and I have a feeling that, when they finished their
wondrous studies, it was with them as Solomon said, .
" The desire accomplished is sweet to the Soul." ^
Dr. Ginsburg
March 2yth, 1918.
Dear Friend, \
When I was at Bath I read in the local paper a
beautiful letter aptly alluding to the Mount Fiesole of
Bath and quoting what has been termed that mysterious
verse of David's :
" I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills ."
Well I the other day a great friend of that wonderful
Hebrew scholar, Dr. Ginsburg — he died long since at
Capri — ^told me that Ginsburg had said to him that all
the Revisers and Translators had missed a peculiar
41
RECORDS
Hebraism which quite alters the signification of this
opening verse of the 121st Psalm : It should read :
" Shall I lift up mine eyes to those hills ? DOTH my help
come from thence ? "
And this is the explanation :
Those hills alluded to were the hills in which were
the Groves planted in honour of the idols towards which
Israel had strayed. So in the second verse the inspired
tongue says :
" No ! My help cometh from the Lord ! He who hath made
Heaven and Earth ! (not these idols),"
I have had an admiration for Ginsburg ever since he
shut up the two Atheists in the Athenaeum Club, Huxley
and Herbert Spencer, who were reviling Holy Writ in
Ginsburg's presence and flouting him. So he asked the
two of them to produce anything anywhere in literature
comparable to the 23rd Psalm as translated by Wyclif,
Tyndale, and Coverdale. He gave them a week to
examine, and at the end of it they confessed that they
could not.
One of them (I could not find out which it was) wrote :
" I won't argue about nor admit the Inspiration claimed,
but I say this — ^that those saintly men whom Cromwell
formed as the company to produce the Great Bible of
1539 were inspired y for never has the spirit of the original
Hebrew been more beautifully transformed from the
original harshness into such spiritual wealth."
Those are not the exact words, I have not got them by
me, but that was the sense.
The English language in a.d. 1539 was at its very
maximum. Hence the beauty of the Psalms which come
from the Great Bible as produced by that holy company
of pious men, who one writer says :* " Did not wish their
names to be ever known." I send you the title page.
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) Fisher.
27/3/18.
42
THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
I enclosed with this letter the front page of the first
edition of the Great Bible, a.d. 1539, often known as
Cranmer's Bible, but Archbishop Cranmer had nothing
whatever to do with it except writing a preface to it ;
it was solely due to Cromwell, Secretary of State to Henry
VIII. , who cut off Cromwell's head in July, 1540. Cranmer
wrote a preface for the edition after April, 1540.
Cranmer was burnt at the stake in Mary's reign.
Tyndale was strangled and burnt, Coverdale, Bishop of
Exeter, died of hunger. Coverdale headed the company
that produced the Great Bible, and Tyndale 's translation
was taken as the basis. (So those who had to do with the
Bible had a rough time of it !)
John Wyclif, in a.d. 1380, began the translation of
the Bible into English. This was before the age of
printing, so it was in manuscript. Before he died,
in A.D. 1384, he had the joy of seeing the Bible
in the hands of his countrymen in their own
tongue.
Wyclif's translation was quaint and homely, and so
idiomatic as to have become out of date when, more than
one hundred years afterwards, John Tyndale, walking
over the fields in Wiltshire, determined so to translate
the Bible into English " that a boy that driveth the
plough should know more of the Scriptures than the
Pope," and Tyndale gloriously succeeded ! But for
doing so, the Papists, under orders from the Pope of
Rome, half strangled him and then burnt him at the
stake. Like St. Paul, he was shipwrecked ! (Just as he
had finished the Book of Jonah, which is curious, but
43
RECORDS
there was no whale handy, and so he was cast ashore in
Holland, nearly dead !)
Our present Bible, of a.d. i6ii, is almost word for
word the Bible of Tyndale, of round A.D. 1530, but in a.d.
1534, Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter, was authorised
by Archbishop Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell (who
was Secretary of State to Henry VHI.) to publish his fresh
translation, and he certainly beautified in many places
Tyndale 's original !
In 1539, '' Diverse excellent learned men expert in
the * foresaid tongues ' " (Hebrew and Greek), under
Cromwell's orders made a true translation of the whole
Bible, which was issued in 1539-40 in four editions, and
remained supreme till a.d. 1568, when the Bishops
tried to improve it, and made a heavenly mess of it ! And
then the present Authorised Version, issued in a.d.
161 1, became the Bible of the Land, and still holds its
own against the recent pedantic Revised Version of
A.D. 1884. No one Hkes it. It is literal, but it is not
spiritual !
In the opinion of Great and Holy men, Cranmer's
Bible (as it is called), or " the Great Bible "—the Bible
of 1539 to 1568 — ^holds the field for beauty of its English
and its emotional rendering of the Holy Spirit !
Alas ! we don't know their names ; we only know of
them as ** Diverse excellent learned men ! " It is said
they did not wish to go down to Fame !
"It is the greatest achievement in letters ! The Beauty
of the translation of these unknown men excels (far
excels) the real and the so-called originals ! All nations
44
THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
and tongues of Christendom have come to admit reluc-
tantly that no other version of the Book in the English or
any other tongue offers so noble a setting for the Divine
Message. Read the Prayer Book Psalms ! They are
from this noble Version — English at its zenith ! The
English of the Great Bible is even more stately, sublime,
and pure than the English of Shakespeare and Elizabeth."
Action
** Ye men of Galilee ! Why stand ye gazing up into
Heaven ? " (Acts, Chapter i., verse ii.)
The moral of this one great central episode of the
whole Christian faith (which, if a man don't believe
with his utmost heart he is as a beast that perisheth,
so Saint Paul teaches in I. Corinthians, Chapter xv.),
the moral of it is that however intense at any
moment of our lives may be the immediate tension that
is straining our mental fibre to the limit, yet we are to
" get on ! " and not stand stock still " gazing up into
Heaven ! " Inaction must be no part of our life, and we
must " get on " with our journey as the Apostles did —
*' to our own City of Jerusalem ! "
It is curious that Thursday (Ascension Day) was not
made the Christian Sabbath. No scientific agnostic
could possibly explain the Ascension by any such theories
as those that try to get over the fact of the Resurrection
by cataleptic happenings or an inconceivable trance 1
The agnostic can't explain away that He was seen by
the Apostles to be carried up into Heaven when in the
45
J
RECORDS
act of lifting up His hands upon them to bless them
** and a cloud received Him out of their sight ! "
Vide the Collect for the Sunday after Ascension Day !
Resentment
The prophet Zechariah says in Chapter xiv., verse 7 :
" At evening time
It shaU be light ! "
And I conclude that in the last stage of life, as pointed
out so very decisively by Dr. Weir Mitchell (that great
American), *' the brain becomes its best," and so we
rearrange our hearts and minds to the great advantage
of our own Heaven and the avoidance of Hell to others I
** Resentment " I find to fade away, and it merges into
the feeling of Commiseration ! (** Poor idiots ! " one
says instead of *' D — n 'em ! *') But I can't arrive as yet
at St. Paul, who deliberately writes that he's quite ready
to go to Hell so as to let his enemy go to Heaven ! You've
got really to be a real Christian to say that ! I've not
the least doubt, however, that John Wesley, Bishop
Jeremy Taylor and Robertson of Brighton felt it surely I
Isn't it odd that those three great saints (fit to be numbered
" with these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job,"
Ezekiel, Chapter xiv., verse 14) each of them should have
a •' nagging " wife !
Their Home was Hell !
And I've searched in vain for any one of the three
saying a word to the detriment of the other sex ! They
might all have been Suffragettes ! (St. Paul does indeed
46
THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
say that he preferred being single ! But Peter was
married ! )
But this ** Resentment " section hinges entirely on
'* Charity " as defined and exemplified by Mr. Robertson,
of Brighton, in one of the best of his wonderful Trinity
Chapel Sermons.
Dean Inge
I heard the Dean of St. Paul's (Dr. Inge) preach in
Westminster Abbey on the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew,
verse 19 : *' Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and
said, * Why could not we cast him out ? ' "
The sermon was really splendiferous !
The Saviour had just cast out a devil that had been
too much for the disciples, and He told them their inability
to do so was due to their want of Faith, and added :
'* Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer." The
Dean explained to us that some ascetic annotator
400 years afterwards had shoved in at the end of these
two additional words — ■* and fasting." That, of course,
was meant by the Dean as " one in the eye " for those
who fast like the Pharisees and for a pretence make long
prayers ! Then the Dean was just too lovely as to
** Prayer ! " He said he was so sick of people praying
for victory in the great War I And speaking generally
he was utterly sick of people praying for what they
wanted ! (as if that was Prayer I) No 1 the Dean
divinely said, ** Ptayer was the exaltation of the Spirit
of a Man to dwell with God and say in the Saviour's
47
RECORDS
words, * Not my will but Thine be done.' ** " Get right
thus with God/' said the Dean, " and then go and make
Guns and Munitions with the utmost fury. That (said
the Dean) was the way to get Victory, and not by silly
vain petitions as if you were asking your Mamma for a
bit of barley sugar." (I don't mean to say the Dean used
these exact words 1) Then he said an interesting thing
that " this event of the disciples ignominiously failing to
cast out the devil " happened to these chief of His apostles
just after their coming down from the Mount of Trans-
figuration, where they had been immensely uplifted by
the Heavenly Vision of the Saviour talking with Moses
and Elijah. The Dean said " that it was really a curious
fact of large experience that when you were thus lifted
up in a Heavenly Spirit it was a sure precursor of a fierce
temptation by the Devil I " These highly-favoured
disciples, after such a communion with God, thought that
they themselves, by themselves, could do anything !
Pride had a fall 1 They could not cast out that devil I
They trusted in themselves and did not give God the
praise ! And so it was that Moses didn't go over Jordan,
for he struck the rock and said, " How now, ye rebels ! "
(I'll show you who I am I)
The Dean also observed that it was the Drains that
had to be put right when there was an Epidemic of
Typhoid Fever ! ** Prayer " wasn't the Antidote !
The holy man Saint Francis summed up all religion
and the Christian life in his famous line :
** How we are in the sight of God ! — That is the only
thing that matters ! "
48
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THE BIBLE, AND OTHER REFLECTIONS
' Forgiveness
It fortuned this morning that I read Joseph's interview
with his Brethren just after the death of their Father
Jacob. They, having done their best to murder Joseph
quite naturally thought that he would now be even with
them, so they told a lie. They said that Jacob their
Father had very kindly left word with them that he hoped
Joseph would be very nice with his brethren after he died.
Jacob said no such thing. Jacob knew his Joseph.
But it gave Joseph a magnificent opportunity for reading
one of Mr. Robertson's, of Brighton, Sermons — he said
to them, ** Am I in the place of God ? " Meaning
thereby that no bread and water that he might put them
on, and no torturing thumbscrews, would in any way
approach the unquenchable fire and the undying worm
that the Almighty so righteously reserves for the black-
guards of this life. Which reminds me of the best
Sermon I ever heard by the present Dean of Salisbury,
Dr. Page-Roberts. He said : " There is no Bankruptcy
Act in Heaven. No los. in the £i there. Every moral,
debt has got to be paid in full," and consequently Page-
Roberts, though an extremely broad-minded man, was
the same as the extreme Calvinist of the unspeakable
Hell and the Roman Catholic's Purgatory. How curious
it is how extremes do meet I
49
CHAPTER IV
EPISODES
I. — Mr. Gladstone's Final Resignation.
I was Controller of the Navy when Lord Spencer was
First Lord of the Admiralty and Sir Frederck Richards
was First Sea Lord. Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minis-
ter, was at the end of his career. I have never read
Morley's *' Life of Gladstone," but I understand that the
incident I am about to relate is stated to have been the
cause of Mr. Gladstone resigning — -and for the last time.
I was the particular Superintending Lord at the Board
of Admiralty, who, as Controller of the Navy, was
specially responsible for the state and condition of the
Navy ; and it was my province, when new vessels were
required, to replace those getting obsolete or worn out.
Sir Frederick Richards and myself were on the very
greatest terms of intimacy. He had a stubborn will,
an unerring judgment, and an astounding disregard of all
arguments. When anyone, seeking a compromise with
him, offered him an alternative, he always took the alterna-
tive as well as the original proposal, and asked for both.
Once bit, twice shy ; no one ever oiffered him an alterna-
tive a second time.
50
EPISODES
However, he had one great incapacity. No one could
write a more admirable and concise minute ; but he was
as dumb as Moses. So I became his Aaron. The mo-
ment arrived when that magnificent old patriot, Lord
Spencer, had to choose between fidelity to his life-long
friend and leader, Mr. Gladstone, and his faithfulness to
his country. Sir Frederick Richards, the First Sea Lord,
had convinced him that a certain programme of ship-
building was vitally and urgently necessary. Mr. Glad-
stone would not have it. Sir Frederick Richards and
myself, in quite a nice way, not quite point-blank,
intimated that the Sea Lords would resign. (My bread
and cheese was at stake, but I did it !) Lord Spencer
threw in his lot with us, and conveyed the gentle likelihood
to Mr. Gladstone ; whereupon Sir William Harcourt
and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman were alternately
turned on to the three of us (Lord Spencer, Sir F.
Richards and myself) sitting round a table in Lord
Spencer's private room. I loved Sir William Harcourt ;
he was what might be called " a genial ruffian," as opposed
to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, who, when he was Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, was a perfect beast, without
a single redeeming feature that I ever found out. Sir
William Harcourt always started the conversazione by
insulting Lord Spencer (quite in a friendly way) ; then
he would say to Sir Frederick Richards, '' I always
thought that one Englishman was equal to three French-
men, and according to this table of ships required, which
has been presented to. the Prime Minister, it takes three
Englishmen to manage one Frenchman." Old Richards
51 E 2
RECORDS
would grow livid with anger ; he wanted to say, " It*s
a damned lie ! " but he couldn't get the proper words
out !
He had an ungovernable temper. I heard him once
say to one of the principal Officers in his ship : " Here ;
don't you look sulky at me, I won't have it ! " There
was a famous one-legged cabman at Portsmouth whom
Sir Frederick Richards hired at Portsmouth railway
station by chance to drive him to the Dockyard. He
didn't recognise the man, but he was an old ship-mate
who had been with him when Sir Frederick Richards
commanded a brig on the coast of Africa, suppressing
the Slave Trade — ^he led them all a dog's life. The fare
was a shilling, and ample at that ; and as old Richards got
out at the Admiral's door he gave the cabman five shiUings,
but the cabby refused it and said to old Richards : *' You
drove me for nothing on the Coast of Africa, I will drive
you for nothing now," and he rattled off, leaving old
Richards speechless with anger. He used to look at Sir
William Harcourt in exactly the same way. I thought he
would have apoplexy sometimes.
Dear Lord Spencer was pretty nearly as bad in his
want of lucid exposition ; so I usually did Aaron
all through with Sir William Harcourt, and one of the
consequences was that we formed a lasting friendship.
When I was made a Lord, Stead came to my house that
very morning and said he had just had a message from Sir
William Harcourt (who had then been dead for some
years), saying how glad Sir William was ; and the
curious thing was that five minutes afterwards I got a
52
EPISODES
letter from his son, now Lord Harcourt, congratulating
me on my Peerage, which had only beeij made known an
hour before. I think Stead said Sir William was in
Heaven. I don't think he ever quite knew where the
departed were !
Campbell-Bannerman was a more awkward customer.
But it was all no use. We got the ships and Mr.
Gladstone went.
II. — The 'Great Lord Salisbury's Brother-in-law.
It really is very sad that those three almost bulky
volumes of my letters to Lord Esher — ^which he has so
wonderfully kept — could not all have been published
just as they are. This is one of the reasons for
my extreme reluctance, which still exists, for these
" Memories" and " Records " of mine being
published in my lifetime. When I was dead there
could be ino libel action I The only alternative is to
have a new sort of " Pilgrim's Progress " published —
the whole three volumes — and substitute Bunyan names.
But that would be almost as bad as putting their real
names in — no one could mistake them !
I think I have mentioned elsewhere that Lord Ripon,
when First Lord, whom I had never met, had a design
to make me a Lord of the Admiralty, but his colleagues
would not have it and called me '* Gambetta." Lord
Ripon said he had sent for me because someone had
maligned me to him as ** a Radical enthusiast." Well,
the upshot was that in 1886 1 became Director of Ordnance
53
RECORDS
of the Navy ; and after a time I came to the definite
conclusion that the Ordnance of the Fleet was in a very
bad w^ay, and the only remedy was to take the whole
business from the War Office, who controlled the Sea
Ordnance and the munitions of sea war. A very funny
state of affairs !
Lord George Hamilton was then First Lord and the
Great Lord Salisbury was Prime Minister. Lord SaUs-
bury's brother-in-law was the gentleman at the War
Office who was solely responsible for the Navy deficien-
cies, bar the politicians. When they cut down the total
of the Army Estimates, he took it off the Sea Ordnance.
He had to, if he wanted to be on B|)eaking terms with his
own cloth. I don't blame him ; I expect I should have
done the same, more particularly as I believe in a Citizen
Army — or, as I have called it elsewhere, a Lord-Lieuten-
ant's Army. (The clothes were a bit different ; but Lord
Kitchener's Army was uncommonly like it.) Lord
George Hamilton, having patiently heard me, as he always
did, went to Lord Salisbury. Lord George backed me
through thick and thin. The result was a Committee —
the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, Chairman ; W. H.
Smith, Secretary for War ; Lord George Hamilton, First
Lord of the Admiralty ; the Director of Ordnance at the
War Office, and myself. It was really a very remarkably
unpleasant time. I had an awful bad cold — much worse
than General Alderson, the Prime Minister's brother-in-
law — and Lord Salisbury never asked after it, while he
slobbered over Alderson. I just mention that as a straw
indicating which way the wind blew. The result, after
54
EPISODES
immense flagellations administered to the Director of the
Sea Ordnance, was that the whole business of the muni-
tions of war for the Navy was turned over to the Admiralty,
" lock, stock and gun barrel, bob and sinker," and by
Herculean efforts and the cordial co-operation of Engel-
bach, C.B., who had fought against me like a tiger, and
afterwards helped like an Angel, and of Sir Ralph Knox,
the Accountant- General of the Army, a big deficit, in
fact a criminal deficit, of munitions for the Fleet was
turned over rapidly into a million sterling of surplus.
They are nearly all dead and gone now, who worked
this enormous transfer, and I hope they are all in Heaven.
This story has a lovely sequel ; and I forgave Lord
Salisbury afterwards for not asking after my cold when,
in 1899, J^any years after, the Hague Peace Conference
came along and he submitted my name to Queen Victoria
as the Naval Delegate, with the remark that, as I had
fought so well against his brother-in-law, there was no
doubt I should fight at the Peace Conference. So I did,
though it was not for Peace ; and M. de Staal, who was a
great friend of mine, and who was the President of the
Conference, told me that my remarks about boiling the
crews of hostile submarines in oil when caught, and so
forth, were really unfit for publication. But W. T.
Stead tells that story infinitely better than I can. It is
in the " Review of Reviews " for February, 19 10.
But there is another providential sequel to the events
with which I began this statement. I made great friends
at the Peace Conference with General Gross von
SchwarzhofF and Admiral von Siegel, the Military and
m^-:-: ' 55
RECORDS
Naval German Delegates, and I then (in 1899) imbibed
those ideas as to the North Sea being our battle ground,
which led to the great things between 1902 and 19 10.
III. — Ship-building and Dockyard Workers.
I have been asked to explain how I got rid of 6,000
redundant Dockyard workmen, when Mr. Childers
nearly wrecked his Government by turning out but a few
hundred. Well, this was how it was done. We brought
home some 160 ships from abroad that could neither
fight nor run away ; enough men were thus provided
for the fighting portion of the crews for all the new ships
then lying in the Dockyards, which were not only deteri-
orating in their hulls and equipment for want of care,
but were inefficient for war because officers and men must
have practice in the ship they fight as much as the Bisley
shot with his rifle, the jockey with his race-horse and the
chef with his sauces. It is practice that makes perfect.
The original plan for mobilising the Navy for war was
that on the outbreak of war you disorganised the ships
already fully manned and efficient by taking a portion of
the trained crew, thus impairing the efficiency of that ship,
and putting them into the un-manned ships and filling
up both the old and the new — ^the former efficient ships
and those in the dockyards — ^with men from the Reserve.
So the whole Navy got disorganised. And that was what
they called " Preparing for War ! '* By what Mr.
Balfour called a courageous stroke of the pen, in his speech
at Manchester ,^when he was Prime Minister, every vessel
56
EPISODES
in the Fleet by the new system had its fighting crew
complete.
Those who were to fill up the hiatus were the hewers
of wood and the drawers of water. The brains were
there ; only the beef had to come, and the beef might
have been taken from the Army.
When are we going to have the great Army and Navy
Co-operative Society, which I set forth to King Edward
in 1903 — ^that the Army should be a Reserve for the
Navy ? When shall we be an amphibious nation ?
This last war has made us into a conscript Nation.
Well, to revert to the subject of how we got rid of the
6,000 redundant dockyard workmen. When that mass
of Officers and men set free by the scrapping of the 160
ships that couldn't fight nor run away came back to
Chatham, Portsmouth, Devonport, Pembroke, and
Queenstown, then in those dockyard towns the tradesmen
had the time of their lives, for the money that had flowed
into the pockets of the Chinese, the Chileans, the Peru-
vians, the Boers, the Brazilians, made the shopkeepers of
the dockyard towns into a mass of Liptons, so that when
the 6,000 Dockyard workers tried, as they had done in the
time of yore (in the time of Childers), to get the dockyard
tradespeople to agitate and turn out their Members of
Parliament, the tradespeople simply replied, " You be
damned ! " and I arranged to find congenial occupation for
these redundant dockyard workmen in private yards
where they were much needed.
When I became Admiral Superintendent of Ports-
mouth Dockyard, I took another drastic step in concen-
57
RECORDS
trating all the workmen then leisurely building several
different ships, and put them all like a hive of bees on to
one ship and extended piece-work to the utmost limit
that was conceivable. The result was that a battle-ship
which would have taken three years to build was built
in one year ; for the work of building a ship is so inter-
laced, when they are working by piece-work especially,
that if one man does not work his fellow workmen cannot
earn so much, so this piece-work helps the overseers
because the men oversee each other.
But there is another great principle which this hides.
The one great secret of the fighting value of a battleship
is to get her to sea quickly :—
" Build few, and build fast,
Each one better than the last."
You will come across some idiots whose minds are so
deliciously symmetrical that they would prefer ten tor-
toises to one greyhound to catch a hare, and it was one of
the principal articles of the ancient creed that you built
ships in batches. They strained at the gnat of uniformity
and so swallowed the camel of inferiority. No progress —
they were a batch.
IV. — " Jolly and Hustle."
I have just been asked by an alluring, though somewhat
elusive friend, to describe to you quite an excellent
illustration of those famous words in " Ecclesiastes "
'' Cast thy bread upon the waters for thou shalt find it after
many days." That*s the text this alluring friend sug-
58
EPISODES
gested to me to exemplify. For myself, I prefer the more
heavenly text where the Scripture says : '* Be not for-
getful to entertain strangers : for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares." It was quite an angel that
I had to do with, and he ate my bread as follows : —
One day, when I was Admiral in North America, I
received a telegram : " The President of the Grand
Trunk Railway with forty distinguished American friends
was arriving in about an hour's time on some business
connected with railway affairs, and could they be per-
mitted to see the battleship * Renown.' " The "Renown "
was my flagship. I sent a reply to the next station their
special train was stopping at, asking them to lunch on
board on their arrival at i p.m. I sent for Monsieur
Auge, my wonderful chef, who on the produce of his
service with me afterwards set up a restaurant in Paris
(he really was excellent — but so extravagant !) and told
him : " Lunch for forty, in an hour's time." All he said
was " Oui, Monsieur," and he did it well ! I myself
being really amazed.
The Company greatly enjoyed themselves. I had some
wonderful champagne obtained from Admiral McCrea — •
of immortal memory as regards that requisite — ^which
effectively seconded M. Auge's magnificent lunch.
Years after — it was in March, 1902 — -I was in a serious
dilemma as to the completion of the necessary buildings
at Osborne for the new scheme of entry of Officers to be
inaugurated by the King in person, who was to open
the new establishment on the fourth day of August
following. Every effort had failed to get a satisfactory
59
RECORDS
contract, when after a prolonged but fruitless discussion,
I was sitting thinking what the devil I should do, when' an
Officer came in to see me on some business and mentioned
casually that he had just come from lunching at the
Carlton and had happened to overhear a man at an adja-
cent table say that he would give anything to see Sir
John Fisher, as he had given him — ^with many others —
the very best lunch he had ever had in his life. I sent the
Officer back to the Carlton to bring him. On his arrival
in my room I didn't remember him, but he at once thanked
me — not for seeing the ** Renown " and all the other
things — but only for the lunch. He said he belonged to
St. Louis and was over in England on business. He
had completed a big hotel in three months, which no one
else would contract to build under three years.
Then I thought of that angel whom I had entertained
unawares ; certainly the bread that was cast came back
all right. I explained my difficulty to him — I had all the
particulars. He said he had his American staff over here,
who had been working at the Hotel, and he would attend
with the contract and the drawings in forty-eight hours.
And he did. The contract was signed, and King Edward
opened the buildings on August 4th.
An expert of our own who participated in the final
proceedings asked the American gentleman's foreman how
he did it, and especially how he had managed that hotel in
the three months. I overheard the American's answer :
" Well," he said, ** this is how our boss does it ; when he
is a-laying of the foundations he is a-thinking of the roof."
*' What is his name ? " said the English expert. " Well,"
60
EPISODES
replied the American, " his name is Stewart, but we always
call him ' JOLLY & HUSTLE.' " " Oh I " said the
English expert, " Why that name ? " ** Well, *' he says,
** I will tell you. There's not one of his workmen, not
even the lower grades, gets less than fifteen shillings a day>
and as much as he likes to eat and drink — free of cost.
Well, that's jolly. But we has to work sixteen hours a
a day — ^that's hustle.*' ^
So when the defences of the Humber came into my
mind and no contractor could be got for so gigantic a
business, I telegraphed for "Jolly & Hustle," and when he
came over and said he would do it and that he was going
to bring everything, from a pin up to a pile-driver, from
America, it made the contractors at home reconsider the
position — and they did the work.
V. — ''Buying up Opportunities."
The words I take to head this section are as applicable
to the affairs of common life as they are to religion, with
reference to which they were originally spoken.
What these words signify is that Faith governs all
things. Victories on Earth have as their foundation the
same saving virtue of Faith.
One great exercise of Faith is ** Redeeming the Time,"
as Paul says. (I'm told the literal meaning of the
original Greek is ** buying up opportunities.") Most
people from want of Faith won't try again. Lord
Kelvin often used to tell me of his continuous desire of
** redeeming the time." Even in dressing himself he
6i
RECORDS
sought every opportunity of saving time (so he told me)
in thinking of the next operation. However his busy
brain sometimes got away from the business in hand,
as he once put his necktie in his pocket and his handker-
chief round his neck. (Another wonderfully clever
friend of mine, who used to think in the Differential
Calculus, I once met immaculately dressed, but he had
his trousers over his arm and not on.) And yet I am told
he was an extraordinarily acute business man . Every sailor
owes him undying gratitude for his " buying up oppor-
tunities " in the way he utilised a broken thigh, which
compelled him to go in a yacht, to invent his marvellous
compass and sounding machine. At the Bombardment
of Alexandria the firing of the eighty ton guns of the
** Inflexible " with maximum charges, which blew my
cap off my head and nearly deafened me, had no effect
on his compasses, and enabled us with supreme advan-
tage to keep the ship steaming about rapidly and so get
less often hit whilst at the same time steering the ship
with accuracy amongst the shoals. So it was with the
ancient sounding machine : one had to stop the ship to
sound, and it was a laborious operation and inaccurate.
Lord Kelvin devised a glass tube which by the height
of the discoloration gave you the exact depth, no matter
how fast the ship was going ; and the beauty of it was
you kept the tubes as a register.
It was an immense difficulty getting the Admiralty to
adopt Lord Kelvin's compass. I was reprimanded for
having them on board. I always asked at a Court-
Martial, no matter what the prisoner was being tried for,
62
EPISODES
whether they had Lord Kelvin's compass on board. It
was only ridicule that got rid of the old Admiralty com-
pass. At the inquiry the Judge asked me whether
the Admiralty compass was sensitive (I was a witness
for Lord Kelvin). I replied, '' No, you had to kick
it to get a move on." But what most scandalised
the dear old Fossil who then presided over the
Admiralty compass department was that I wanted
to do away with the points of the compass and mark
it into the three hundred and sixty degrees of the
circle (you might as well have asked them to do away
with salt beef and rum !). There could then never be
any mistake as to the course the ship should steer.
However, a landsman won't understand the beauty of
this simplicity, and the " Old Salts " said at that time
" There he is again — the d — d Revolutionary ! "
But to revert to *' buying up opportunities " : I know
no more signal instance of the goodness of Paul's advice
both to the Ephesians and Colossians in things temporal
as in things spiritual than as exemplified by the Gunnery
Lieutenant of the '' Inflexible " in discovering a fracture
in one of her eighty-ton guns. He was always thinking
ahead in everything: — *' Buying up Opportunities."
After the Bombardment of Alexandria we two were
walking along the shore ; he stopped and said, " Hullo !
that's a bit of one of our shell, and it burst in the bore of
the gun." As there were no end of pieces of burst shell
about, which had exploded in striking the fort, I said,
" How do you know it is ? " He pointed to the marks
of the rifling on the shell, which showed that it had burst
63
RECORDS
in the bore and had been pressed into the grooves of the
rifling, instead of being rotated by the copper band on its
passage through the bore. Then he put his hand in his
pocket, took out his cUnometer, laid it on the marks of
the rifling on the bit of burst shell ; and the rifling of
our eighty-ton guns having an increasing spiral, he cal-
culated the exact spot in the gun where the shell had burst.
And when he got on board he had himself shoved up the
bore of the gun holding a piece of hot gutta percha,like that
with which the dentist takes the impression of your mouth
for a set of false teeth, and brought me out the impression
of where the gun had been cracked by the explosion of
the shell. Younghusband was his name — ^perhaps the
most gifted man I ever met, but, as unusual with genius,
he was not indolent and was always practising himself in
seizing opportunities. When the constituted authorities
came to inspect the gun, though Younghusband put the
broken bit of shell before them, they took a long time to
find that crack. One night at Portsmouth someone told
Younghusband, who was having his third glass of port
after dinner, that he was too fat to walk. For a con-
siderable bet he got up there and then and walked
seventy-two miles to London. Younghusband never
went to any school in his life ; he never left home ; he
never had a governess or a tutor. He was taught by his
mother.
VI. — How THE Great War was Carried on.
Six weeks after I left the Admiralty on May 22nd,
191 5 — that deplorable day, the particulars of which I
64
A Group on Board H.M.S. " Standard," 1909.
The Czar, The Grand Duchess Olga, and
Sir John Fisher.
EPISODES
am not at present at liberty to mention — I received most
cordial letters from both Mr. Asquith and Mr. Balfour
welcoming me to fill a Post of great magnitude.
I am impelled to digress here for a few moments to
tell a very excellent story of Dean Hole (famous for the
cultivation of roses). He said to his Curate one day,
'' I am sick of hearing the name of that poor man whom
we pray for every Sunday ; just say * the prayers of the
Congregation are requested for a member of the Con-
gregation who is grievously ill.' " Next Sunday the
Curate said at the usual place in Divine Service, *' The
prayers of the Congregation are requested for a gentleman
whose name Fm not at liberty to mention ! " That's
my case in regard to what happened between Saturday,
May 15th, and Saturday, May 22nd, during which time
I received communications which I hold in my hand
at this moment, and which some day when made public
will be just astonishing ! I am advised that the Law
does not permit even an outline of them to be given.
I was invited by Mr. Balfour to preside over an Assem-
blage of the most Eminent Men of Science for War
purposes ; the chief point was the German Submarine
Menace. Also we had to consider Inventions, as well
as Scientific Research.
My three Super-Eminent Colleagues of the Central
Committee of this great Scientific Organisation were
very famous men : —
(i) Sir J. J. Thomson, O.M., President of the Royal
Society and now Master of Trinity. I am told (and I
believe it) a man unparalleled in Science.
65 F
RECORDS
(2) The Hon. Sir Charles Parsons, K.C.B., the
Inventor of the Turbine, which has changed the whole
art of Marine Engineering, and enabled us to sink
Admiral von Spee. We couldn't have sunk von Spee
without Parsons 's Turbine, as those two great Fast
Battle-Cruisers " Invincible " and " Inflexible " could
not have steamed otherwise 14,000 miles without a
hitch (there and back). They only arrived at the Falkland
Islands a few hours before Admiral von Spee.
(3) Sir George Beilby, F.R.S., one of the greatest
of Chemists, who, if we don't take care, will give us a
smokeless England, by getting rid of coal in its present
beastly form, and turning it into oil and fertilisers, dyes,
etc., etc. The Refuse he sells to the Poor fifty per cent,
cheaper than coal and without smoke or ashes.
The Advisory Panel of other Distinguished Men was
as famous as these Magi. There were also many Eminent
Associates.
I felt extreme diffidence in occupying the Chair ;
however, I put it to them all in the famous couplet of
the French author who, in annexing the thoughts of
other people, took this couplet as the text of his book : —
" I have cull'd a garland of flowers.
Mine only is the string that binds them."
I said to them all at our first Assemblage : " Gentlemen,
You are the Flowers, I am the String ! "
You would have thought that such a Galaxy of Talent
would have been revered, welcomed, and obeyed — on
the contrary, it was derided, spurned, and ignored.
66
EPISODES
The permanent " Expert Limpets " did for us ! AH
the three First Lords at the Admiralty whom we dealt
with in succession were most cordial and most apprecia-
tive, but all three were equally powerless. Just a couple
or so of instances will suffice to illustrate the reason why
we at last said to Sir Eric Geddes : —
" Ave Geddes Imperator !
" Morituri te Salutant."
(i) The chief object of this magnificent Scientific
^Organisation being to counter the German Sub-
marine Menace, we naturally asked for a Submarine to
experiment with. The answer was " one could not
be spared."
(2) We asked to be furnished with all the details
of the destruction of German Submarines that had
already taken place, which of course lay at the root
of further investigation. This was denied us !
(3) A " Submarine Detector " was developed
under the auspices of the Central Committee by
May, 191 6. A year was allowed to elapse before
it was taken up ; and even then its progress was
cancelled because nothing more than a laboratory
experiment with a competing invention came to
the notice of the " Limpets."
(4) The Scientific Members of our Association
had conceived and practically demonstrated a most
astoundingly simple method of discovering the
passage of German Submarines. It was termed
" The Loop Detection " scheme. It was turned
67 F 2
RECORDS
down — ^And then two years afterwards was violently
taken up, with astoundingly successful results.
I think I have said enough. And really, after all, what
is the good of raking up the past ?
I have had two pieces of advice given me referring
to the trials I had experienced. One was : —
" When sinners entice thee, consent thou not ! —
But take the name and address for future reference."
And the other was : — *' Fear less — ^hope more ; eat
less — chew more ; whine less — breathe more (deep
breathing) ; talk less — say more ; hate less — love more,
and all good things are yours."
CHAPTER V
DEMOCRACY
" Government of the people — hy the people— for the people. ^^
{President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, 1863.)
Some time ago the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge
University presided at a lecture on Democracy given at
Cambridge by the Professor of History at Chicago
(A. C. McLaughlin). I gather that he implied that
Democracy is helpless in the game of secret diplomacy
and secret treaties. Democracy now all depends upon the
purpose and desire of the English-speaking people.
It*s an opportune moment to repeat John Bright's
very famous speech on a great federation of the nations
that speak the Anglo-Saxon tongue.
The speech was given me when crossing the Atlantic
by a splendid citizen of the United States, where I had
just been receiving boundless hospitality and a wonderful
welcome, and had realised the truth about a prophet
when not in his own country, and had been asked to
" stump the Middle West ** to advocate the cause of
friendship amongst all those who speak our incomparable
tongue, and to establish a Great Commonwealth of Free
Nations. There can be no secret treaties and no secret
69
RECORDS
diplomacy when the Government is of the People, by the
People, for the People.
This is John Bright's speech :
** Now what can one say of the future of our race and
of our kinsmen ? Is that merely a dream ? By no
means. . . . Look where we are now ? . . .
" In this country, in Canada, and in the United States
there are, or soon will be, one hundred and fifty millions of
population, nearly all of whom owe their birth and origin to
the comparatively small country in which we live. It is
a fact that is not paralleled in any past history, and what
may come in the future to compare with it or excel it, it
is not for us to speak of, or even with any show of reason
to imagine ; but we have in all these millions the same
language, the same literature, mainly the same laws
and the institutions of freedom. May we not hope for
the highest and noblest federation to be established
among us ? That is a question to which I would ask
your special and sympathetic attention. The noblest
kind of federation among us, under different Govern-
ments it may be, but united by race, by sympathy, by
freedom of industry, by communion of interests and by
a perpetual peace, we may help to lead the world to that
better time which we long for and which we believe in,
though it may not be permitted to our mortal eyes to
behold it."
That was said by John Bright.
The time has now come for this great federation which
he desired — for this great Commonwealth of Free
Nations.
There is only one type of treaty which is effective —
** Community of Interests."
All other treaties are " Scraps of Paper."
70
DEMOCRACY
It is maintained by eminent men that the late appalling
and disastrous war, in which so many millions of human
beings have been massacred or maimed, would never
have occurred had there been a real Democracy in power
in England. They say, as a small instance, that the
great Mutiny at the Nore and other mutinies were brought
about by trampling on Democracy.
This is what pure and unadulterated Democracy is,
and we have not got it in England : —
"EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL."
For instance, no parent with less than nearly a £1000
a year can now send his boy into the Navy as an
Officer !
Nature is no respecter of birth or money power when
she lavishes her mental and physical gifts.
We fight God when our Social System dooms the brilliant
clever child of the poor man to the same level as his father.
Therefore, we must have such State provision and
such State education as will enable the very poorest in
the land to let their eligible children rise to Admirals,
Generals, Ambassadors, and Statesmen.
Can it be conceived that a real Democracy would have
permitted secret treaties such as have been divulged to
us, or have scouted the terms of Peace which were
allowed only to be seen by Kings and Prime Ministers ;
or would a real Democracy have flouted the Russian
Revolution in its first agonizing throes when gasping for
help and recognition ?
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RECORDS
In a real Democracy, would true Labour leaders have
waited on the doormat ?
Would a real Democracy wave the red rag of " Empire "
in front of these noble self-governing peoples all speaking
our tongue in their own free Parliaments, and all of them
praying for the hastening of the time when " England,
the Mother of Free Parliaments, shall herself be free " ?
But the Glorious Epoch is now fast approaching !
A Prime Minister once complimented me on a casual
saying of mine at his luncheon table. I was accounting
for part of my success against
" Many giants great and tall,"
and I ventured to state that : —
" The secret of successful administration was the
intelligent anticipation of agitation."
Anticipate the Revolution, Do the thing yourself in
your way before the agitators get in before you and do it
in their way. Get rid of the present obsolete Forms and
Antique Ceremonies which grate on the masses, and of
Figureheads who are laughing-stocks, and of sinecures
which are exasperating — and so anticipate another Crom-
well, who is certainly now coming fast along to *' Remove
another Bauble ! "
I forget what they did to the man who tried to import
poisonous snakes into New Zealand (finding that happy
island unblessed with this commodity). It was something
quite drastic they did to him ! They killed the snakes.
The Canadian House of Commons adopted by a
majority of 33 a motion by Sir Robert Borden, on behalf
72
DEMOCRACY
of the Canadian Government, asking that no more
hereditary titles should be bestowed in Canada, and
declaring that the Canadian Government should make
all recommendations for honours of any kind. This
motion was a compromise designed to damp down the
popular outcry against titles which has arisen in Canada.
In one debate Sir Wilfrid Laurier offered to throw his
own title on a common bonfire. He urged that all titles
in Canada should be abolished.
Why should Great Britain lag behind Canada and the
United States ? Hereditary titles are ludicrously out of
date in any modern democracy, and the sooner we sweep
away all the gimcracks and gewgaws of snobbery the
better. The fount of so-called honour has become a
deluge, and the newspapers are hard put to it to find
room for even the spray of the deluge.
The war has not begotten simplicity and austerity in
this respect. On the contrary, it has made what used to
be a comedy a screaming farce. There was a time when
the Birthday Honours List could be printed on one day,
but it is now a serial novel. The first chapter of the
latest Birthday list was long, but the Times warned us
that it was only " the first of a series which already
threatens to outlast the week — quite apart from the
gigantic Order of the British Empire.'*
Chicago's great Professor of History, Mr. McLaughlin,
made the statement at the Kingsway Hall, in his address
to British teachers, that now the United States have over
100 millions of people, and fifty years from now they
may well have 200 millions^a great Atlantic and Pacific
73
RECORDS
Power. The Professor added that this great War
was *' to protect Democracy against the greatest menace
it has ever had " (in the present rule of Kings and
Secret Treaties, etc., etc.). Another points out as a
striking example of present old-time conditions (so
pernicious to freedom and efficiency) the positive fact
now existing that our Military Leaders, by a class
distinction, were only selected from one twenty-fifth of
the ore which we have at our disposal though we had
brought five million men under arms, as all our generals
commanding armies, army corps, divisions, and in most
cases brigades, were drawn from among the Regular
Forces who handled our small pre-War Army of two
hundred thousand men. And the writer adds :
" If considered purely from the standpoint of the law
of averages, one would expect to find more good brains
if one searched the entire Army than in merely looking for
material in one twenty-fifth of it."
General Currie, who so ably commands all the Canadian
Forces, was a Land Agent before the War. Neither
Napoleon nor Wellington ever commanded a regiment.
Marlborough never handled an army till he was fifty-
two years of age. Clive was a Bank Clerk. Napoleon's
maxim was ** La carrier e ouverte aux talents.** Are we
ever going to adopt it ?
Peace
This truth is (and ever will be) the fact that the only
pact that ever holds, and the only treaty that ever lasts
is '.
'' COMMUNITY OF INTEREST I "
74
DEMOCRACY
and we can only have Community of Interest in the
masses of a People always being on the side of Peace,
because it's the masses who are massacred, not the
Kings and Generals and Politicians (they are plentifully
fed and comfortably housed, and have the best white
bread — vide the American Dentist, Davies, when he
stayed with the German Emperor).
Well ! the only way the masses of the People can act
effectively is by means of Republics. Because then no
secret diplomacy ever answers, and no one man can make
war, or no coterie of men. In a Republic we get " Gov-
ernment of the People, by the People, for the People."
It's a cheap sneer to ask how long the same Govern-
ment ever exists in Republican France ! Nevertheless,
sooner millions of changes of Government and Peace
than a stable Government with War ! A Republic is
always Peace-loving ! except when righteous fury in a
gust of popular rage sweeps it into war, as lately in
America ; but it took four years to move them ! The
People pushed the President. We are going to have
Bolshevism unless we foster these German Republics,
and it will spread righteously to England. "^
These Leagues of Nations and Freedoms of the Seas
and all the other items are all d — d nonsense ! When War
does come, then ** Might is Right." '* La raison du plus
fort est toujours la meilleure ! " and every treaty is a
Scrap of Paper !
The Essence of War is Violence.
Moderation in War is Imbecility.
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You hit first, you hit hard, and keep on hitting.
You have to be Ruthless, Relentless and Remorseless.
It's perfect rot to talk about " Civilised Warfare ! "
You might as well talk about a '* Heavenly Hell ! "
From Lord Fisher to a Friend.
My Dear ,
I wrote to a distinguished friend to note (but not
to congratulate him) that he had been made " a Com-
panion of Honour " (what that is I don't know !), and
told him one of the disadvantages of even a " Limited
Monarchy " was the making of us all into Christmas
Trees to hang Decorations upon ! He replied he had
declined it, as he did not wish " to be regarded as a dab
of paint to camouflage this new Order instituted for
Labour Leaders ! " Haven't I always told you we are a
Nation of Snobs, and that even the Labour Leaders don't
resent being kept hanging about on the door mat ?
My dear friend adds : "I feel sure your conception
of Democracy will be realised." (I had sent him my
Paper on Democracy that you didn't like !) ** Liberty
means a Country where every man or woman has an equal
chance. ^^
" The race of Life in a civilised Country is a race
carried out under a system of handicaps, and the people
who do the handicapping are the people of the least
brains.
** The prophecy you send me is wonderful."
I think the words of this my friend will interest you,
though perhaps not convince you !
Yours till death,
F.
9/6/18.
76
DEMOCRACY
The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
I have been sitting this morning under a Presbyterian
Minister, Dr. Hugh Black, whose eloquence so moved
the Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George (who kindly
gave me a seat in his pew, on the other side of
me being President Wilson, at the Presbyterian Church
in Paris on May 25th, 19 19), that the moment the
service was ended the Prime Minister went straight
to him in the pulpit and told him it was one of the
best sermons he had ever heard. And it probably
was. One word Dr. Black used was very descriptive.
He described us all, except those homeless ones for whom
the Saviour pleaded in Dr. Black's text, as the '* sheltered "
classes. I think also our feelings in the congregation
(not that I wish to derogate from the sermon) had been
intensely moved by the magnificent singing on the part
of the great congregation (mostly American Citizens) of
the Battle Hymn of the American Republic, composed
by Julia Ward Howe. The tune (" John Brown's Body "),
as Mr. Sankey said, no doubt has much to do with the
glorious emphasis of the chorus ; but certainly the words
are magnificent : —
BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC.
Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord ;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are
stored ;
He hath loosed the fatal lightning of His terrible swift sword.
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory ! Glory ! Hallelujah ! His truth is marching on.
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I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circUng camps ;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps ;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps,
His day is marching on.
Glory, etc.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel ;
" As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal "
Let the Hero bom of woman crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory, etc.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat ;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His Judgment seat ;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my feet !
Our God is marching on.
Glory, etc.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea ;
With the glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me ;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Glory, etc.
It reminded me of the 76th Psalm, sung by those old
Covenanters when they vanquished Claverhouse at
Drumclog. We see the Battle Field of Drumclog from
the room where we are now talking.
" In Judah's land God is well known,
His name's in Isr'l great."
I began a letter (but diffidence made me stop it) to
Sir William Watson the poet, to ask him if he couldn't
give us some such great Hymn for the Nation.
" God Save the King '* is worn out. We don't
individualise now. It is as worn out as knee breeches
for Court Functions or Gold Lace Coats for Sea Officers.
78
CHAPTER VI
PUBLIC SPEECHES
I HAVE made four accurately reported public speeches,
the fifth one (at Mr. Josephus Daniels's reception by the
American Luncheon Club) is too inadequate to include
here. For none of these four speeches had I any notes,
except for the one of a hundred words and one of fifty
words, both delivered in the House of Lords. The
other two were simply and solely my exuberant verbosity,
and they must be read with that remark in mind. I was
saturated with the subject ; and when the Times reporter
came and asked me for my speech before Fd made it, I
told him with truth that I really didn't know what I was
going to say. I might have been like Thackeray (What
a classic case his was !). He was the Guest of Honour.
He got up, was vociferously cheered, and was dumb.
After a death-like silence he said these words, and sat
down : — ^^ If I could only remember what I thought of
to say to you when I was coming here in the cab, you
really would have had a delightful speech ! "
I. — The Royal Academy Banquet, 1903.
The Navy always readily appreciates the kind words in
which this toast is proposed, and also the kind manner in
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which it is always received. I beg to thank you especially,
Mr. President, for your kind reference to Captain Percy
Scott, which was so well deserved. He was indeed a
handy man. (Cheers.) Personally I have not the same
pleasurable feelings on this occasion as I enjoyed last
year, when I had no speech to make. I remember quite
well remarking to my neighbour : " How good the
whitebait is, how excellent the champagne, and how jolly
not to have to make a speech." He glared at me and said :
** I have got to make a speech, and the whitebait to me is
hete noire y and the champagne is real pain." (Laughter.)
He was so ready with his answer that I thought to myself :
*' You'll get through it all right," and sure enough he did,
for he spoke thirty minutes by the clock without a check.
(Laughter.) I am only going to give you three minutes
(cries of " No.") Yes. I always think on these occasions
of the first time I went to sea on board my first ship, an
old sailing two-decker, and I saw inscribed in great big
gold letters the one word " Silence." (Laughter.)
Underneath was another good motto : *' Deeds, not
words." (Cheers.) I have put that into every ship I
have commanded since. (Cheers.) This leads me to
another motto which is better still, and brings me to the
point of what I have to say in reply to the toast that has
been proposed. When I was Commander-in-Chief in
the Mediterranean I went to inspect a small Destroyer,
only 260 tons, but with such pride and swagger that she
might have been 16,000 tons. (Laughter.) The young
Lieutenant in command took me round. She was in
beautiful ofder, and I came aft to the wheel and saw
80
I. 2. 3. 4. 5.
A Group on Board H.M.S. " Standard," 1909.
I. The Empress Marie of Russia. 3. Sir John Fisher.
:. The Czarina.
4. The Grand Duchess Olga.
5. The Czar.
PUBLIC SPEECHES
there the inscription : " Ut Veniant Omnes." *' Hallo,"
I said, ** what the deuce is that ? " (Laughter.) Saluting
me, he said : " Let 'em all come. Sir." (Great laughter
and cheers.) Well, that was not boasting ; that was the
sense of conscious efficiency — (cheers) — ^the sense that
permeates the whole Fleet — (cheers) — and I used to
think, as the Admiral, it will be irresistible provided the
Admiral is up to the mark. The Lord Chief Justice,
sitting near me now, has kindly promised to pull me down
if I say too much ! (Laughter.) But what I wish to
remark to you is this — and it is a good thing for everybody
to know it — ^there has been a tremendous change in Navy
matters since the old time. In regard to Naval warfare
history is a record of exploded ideas. (Laughter and
cheers.) In the old days they were sailors' battles ;
now they are Admirals' battles. I should like to recall
to you the greatest battle at sea ever fought. What was
the central episode of that ? Nelson receiving his death-
wound ! What was he doing ? Walking up and down
on the quarter-deck arm-in-arm with his Captain. It is
dramatically described to us by an onlooker. His
Secretary is shot down ; Nelson turns round and says :
" Poor Scott ! Take him down to the cockpit," and then
he goes on again walking up and down, having a yarn with
his Captain. What does that mean ? It means that in
the old days the Admiral took his fleet into action ; each
ship got alongside the enemy ; and, as Nelson finely said,
" they got into their proper place." (Cheers.) And
then the Admiral had not much more to do. The ships
were touching one another nearly, the Bos'un went with
8i G
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some rope and lashed them together so as to make them
quite comfortable — (laughter) — and the sailors loaded
and fired away till it was time to board. But what is the
case now ? It is conceivable that within twenty minutes
of sighting the enemy on the horizon the action will have
begun, and on the disposition of his Fleet by the Admiral
— on his tactics — ^the battle will depend, for all the
gunnery in the world is no good if the guns are masked by
our own ships or cannot bear on the enemy ! In that
way I wish to tell you how much depends on the Admirals
now and on their education. Therefore, joined with this
spirit, of which the remark of the young Lieutenant I
mentioned to you is an indication, permeating the whole
Service, we require a fearless, vigorous, and progressive
administration, open to any reform — (loud cheers)^
never resting on its oars — ^for to stop is to go back — and
forecasting every eventuality. I will just take two in-
stances at hazard.
Look at the Submarine Boat and Wireless Telegraphy.
When they are perfected we do not knozv what a Revolution
will come about.
In their inception they were the weapons of the weak.
Now they loom large as the weapons of the strong.
Will any Fleet be able to be in narrow waters ?
Is there the slightest fear of invasion with them, even
for the most extreme pessimist } I might mention other
subjects ; but the great fact which I come to is that we
are realising — the Navy and the Admiralty are realising
— that on the British Navy rests the British Empire.
(Loud cheers.) Nothing else is of any use without it, not
82
PUBLIC SPEECHES
even the Army. (Here the gallant Admiral, amid laughter,
turned to Mr. Brodrick, the Secretary for War, who sat
near him.) We are different from Continental nations.
No soldier of ours can go anywhere unless a sailor carries
him there on his back. (Laughter.) I am not dis-
paraging the Army. I am looking forward to their coming
to sea with us again as they did in the old days. Why,
Nelson had three regiments of infantry with him at the
battle of Cape St. Vincent, and a Sergeant of the 69th
Regiment led the boarders, and. Nelson having only one
arm, it was the Sergeant who helped him up. (Cheers.)
The Secretary for War particularly asked me to allude to
the Army or else I would not have done it. (Loud
laughter.) In conclusion, I assure you that the Navy
and the Admiralty recognise their responsibility. I think
I may say that we now have a Board of Admiralty that is
united, progressive, and determined — (cheers) — and you
may sleep quietly in your beds — (loud cheers).
H. — ^The Lord Mayor's Banquet, 1907.
As to the strength, the efficiency, and the sufficiency of
the Navy, I am able to give you indisputable proofs.
Recently, in the equinoctial season in the North Sea we
have had twenty-six of the finest battleships in the
world and twenty-five of the finest cruisers, some of them
equal to foreign battleships, and over fifty other vessels,
under eleven Admirals, and all working under a distin-
guished Commander-in-Chief, under very trying circum-
stances and in a very stormy time, and I look in vain to
83 G 2
RECORDS
see any equal to that large Fleet anywhere. (Cheers.)
That is only a fraction of our power. (Cheers.) And
that large Fleet is nulli secunduSy as they say, whether it is
ships or officers or men. (Cheers.) Now, I turn to the
other point, the gunnery of the Fleet. The gunnery
efficiency of the Fleet has surpassed all records — 'it is
unparalleled — and I am lost in wonder and admiration
at the splendid unity of spirit and determination that
must have been shown by everybody from top to bottom
to obtain these results. (Cheers.) I am sure that your
praise and your appreciation will go forth to them,
because, remember, the best ships, the biggest Navy —
my friend over there talked about the two-Power standard
— a million-Power standard (laughter) is no use unless
you can hit. (Cheers.) You must hit first, you must hit
hard, and you must keep on hitting. (Cheers.) If these
are the fruits, I don't think there is much wrong with the
government of the Navy. (Cheers.) Figs don't grow
on thistles. (Laughter and cheers.) But a gentleman
of fine feeling has lately said that the recent Admiralty
administration has been attended with the devil's own
luck. (Laughter.) That interesting personality
(laughter) — his luck is due to one thing, and one thing
only — hesitates at nothing to gain his object. That is
what the Board of Admiralty have done, and our object
has been the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and its instant
readiness for war ; and we have got it. (Cheers.) And
I say it because no one can have a fuller knowledge than
myself about it, and I speak with the fullest sense of re-
sponsibility. (Cheers.) So I turn to all of you, and I
84
PUBLIC SPEECHES
turn to my countrymen and I say — Sleep quiet in your
beds (laughter and cheers), and do not be disturbed by
these bogeys — invasion and otherwise — which are being
periodically resuscitated by all sorts of leagues.
(Laughter.) I do not know what league is working this
one. It is quite curious what reputable people lend them-
selves to these scares. This afternoon I read the effu-
sions of a red-hot and most charmingly interesting maga-
zine editor. He had evidently been victimised by a
Punch correspondent, and that Punch correspondent had
been gulled by some Midshipman Easy of the Channel
Fleet. He had been there. And this is what the maga-
zine editor prints in italics in this month's magazine —
that an army of 100,000 German soldiers had been practis-
ing embarking in the German Fleet. The absolute truth
is that one solitary regiment was embarked for manoeuvres.
That is the truth. To embark 100,000 soldiers you
want hundreds and thousands of tons of transport.
You might just as well talk of practising embarking St.
Paul's Cathedral in a penny steamer. (Laughter.)
I have no doubt that equally silly stories are current in
Germany. I have no doubt that there is terror there
that the English Fleet will swoop down all of a sudden
and gobble up the German Fleet* (Laughter.) These
stories are not only silly — ^they are mischievous, very
mischievous. (Hear, hear.) If Eve had not kept on
looking at that apple (laughter) — and it was pleasant to
the eyes — she would not have picked it, and we should
not have been now bothered with clothes. (Loud
laughter.) I was very nearly forgetting something else
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RECORDS
that the Punch correspondent said. I put it in my pocket
as I came away to read it out to you. He had been a week
in the Channel Fleet and he had discussed everything,
from the admiral down to the bluejacket. He does not
say anything about that Midshipman Easy. " In one
matter I found unanimity of admission. It was that in
respect to the number of fighting ships, their armament,
and general capacity the British Navy was never in so
satisfactory a condition as it floats to-day." (Cheers.)
So we let him off that yarn about the 100,000 German
troops. (Laughter.)
III.— The House of Lords, November 16, 1915.
Lord Fisher, rising from the cross-benches im-
mediately before public business was called, said :— " I
ask leave of your lordships to make a statement. Certain
references were made to me in a speech delivered yesterday
by Mr. Churchill. I have been 61 years in the service of
my country, and I leave my record in the hands of my
countrymen. The Prime Minister said yesterday that
Mr. Churchill had said one or two things which he had
better not have said, and^that he necessarily and naturally
left unsaid some things which will have to be said. I
am content to wait. It is unfitting to make personal
explanations affecting national interests when my
country is in the midst of a great war."
Lord Fisher, having delivered his brief statement,
immediately left the House.
86
PUBLIC SPEECHES
IV. — The House of Lords, March 21, 1917.
Lord Fisher addressed the House of Lords.
Immediately prayers were over he rose from a seat on
one of the cross-benches. He said : —
" With your Lordships* permission, I desire to make a
personal statement. When our country is in great
jeopardy, as she now is, it is not the time to tarnish great
reputations, to asperse the dead, and to discover our
supposed weaknesses to the enemy ; so I shall not discuss
the Dardanelles Reports — I shall await the end of the war,
when all the truth can be made known."
87
CHAPTER VII
THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING
Sir William Allan, M.P., with the torso of a
Hercules and the voice of a bull and the affectionate
heart of Mary Magdalene, did not know Latin, and he
asked me what my motto meant :
** Fiat justitia — ruat coelum."
I had sent it to him when he was malignantly attacking
me because, as Controller of the Navy, I had introduced
the water-tube boiler. Sir William Allan was himself a
boiler-maker, and he had to scrap most of his plant
because of this new type of boiler.
I said the translation was : "Do right, and damn the
odds."
This motto has stood me in good stead, for by attending
to it I fought a great battle in a righteous cause with Lord
Salisbury, when he was Prime Minister, and conquered.
I have related this elsewhere. Years after. Lord Salis-
bury, in remembrance of this, recalled me from being
Commander-in-Chief in America to be British delegate
at the First Peace Conference at The Hague in 1899,
and from thence I went as Commander-in-Chief of the
Mediterranean Fleet.
88
THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING
While I was in command of the Mediterranean Fleet,
from 1899 to 1902, when I became Second Sea Lord of
the Admiralty, I arranged to have lectures for the officers
of the Fleet. I extract now from the notes of my lectures
some points which may be of general interest, as illus-
trating the new strategy and tactics necessitated by the
change from wind to steam.
After setting forth a few of the problems which would
have to be solved in sea-fighting under the new conditions,
the lecturer went on to elaborate the themes from such
rough notes as I give here of the principal ideas.
All Officers without exception should be unceasingly
occupied in considering the various solutions of these
problems, as who can tell who will be in command after
the first five minutes of a close engagement, whether in
an individual ship or in command of the whole Fleet I
Otherwise we may have a stampede like that of riderless
horses ! The Captain or Admiral is hors de combat, and
the next Officer, and, perhaps, the next, and the next
don't know what to do when moments mean victory or
defeat !
*' The man who hesitates is lost ! " and so it will be
with the Fleet if decision is wanting !
" Time, Twiss, time is everything ! " said Nelson
(speaking to General Twiss when he was chasing the
French Fleet under Villeneuve to the West Indies) ;
" a quarter of an hour may mean the difference between
Victory and Defeat ! "
This was in sailing days. Now it will be quarters of
a minute, not quarters of an hour ! ^^
It is said to have been stated by one of the most eminent \
of living men, that sudden war becomes daily more
probable because public opinion is becoming greater in
power, and that popular emotion, once fairly aroused,
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sweeps away the barriers of calm deliberation, and is
deaf to the voice of reason.
Besides cultivating the faculty of Quick Decision and
consequent rapid action, we must cultivate Rashness.
Napoleon was asked the secret of victory. He replied,
" Uaudace^ Vaudace, Vaudace, toujour s Vaudace I "
There is a rashness which in Peace is Folly, but which
in War is Prudence, and there are risks that must be
undertaken in War which are Obligatory, but which in
peace would be Criminal !
As in War, so in the preparation for War, Rashness
must have its place. We must also reflect how apt we are
to suppose that the enemy will fit himself into our plans !
The first successful blow on either side will probably
determine the final issue in sea-fighting. Sustained
physical energy will be the required great attribute at
that time for those in command as well as those who
administer. Collingwood wrote two years before Tra-
falgar, when blockading Rochefort — and Nelson then off
Toulon, Pellew off Ferrol, and Cornwallis off Brest —
that ** Admirals needed to he made of iron ! " The pressure
then will test the endurance of the strongest, and the
rank of Admiral confers no immunity from the operation
of the natural law of Anno Domini I Nelson was 39 years
old at the Battle of the Nile, and died at 47. What is
our average age of those actively responsible for the
control, mobilisation, and command of our Fleets ? As
age increases, audacity leaks out and caution comes in.
An instant offensive is obligatory. Mahan truly says: —
" The assumption of a simple defensive in war is ruin.
War, once declared, must be waged offensively, aggres-
sively. The enemy must not be fended off, but smitten
down. You may then spare him every exaction, relin-
quish every gain. But till down he must be struck
incessantly and remorselessly."^
^ Was that our Sea Policy during the War? Did we not keep our
Fleet in cotton wool ?
90
THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING
All will depend on the instant start, the sudden blow !
Napoleon again, '* Frappez vite et frappez fort ! " That
was the whole of his orders.
The question of armament is all-important !
If we have the advantage of speed, which is the first
desideratum in every class of fighting vessel {Battleships
included)^ then^ and then only, we can choose our distance
for fighting. If we can choose our distance for fighting,
then we can choose our armament for fighting ! But how
in the past has the armament been chosen ? Do we
arrange the armament to meet the proposed mode of
fighting ? Doesn^t it sometimes look like so many of each
sort, as if you were peopling the Ark, and wanted re-
presentatives of all calibres ?
Whoever hits soonest and oftenest will win ! ^
" The effectiveness of a fighting weapon," wrote )
Mahan, " consists more in the method of its use and in
the practised skill of the human element that wields it
than in the material perfection of the weapon itself. The
sequel of a long period of peace is a demoralisation of
ideals. Those who rise in peace are men of formality
and routine, cautious, inoffensive, safe up to the limits
of their capacity, supremely conscientious, punctilious
about everything but what is essential, yet void altogether
of initiative, impulse and originality.
" This was the difference between Hawke and Mat-
thews. Hawke represented the spirit of war, the ardour,
the swift initiative, the readiness of resource, the im-
patience of prescription and routine, without which no
great things are done ! Matthews, the spirit of peace, the |
very reverse of all this ! " _^_J
Peace brings with it the reign of old men.
The sacred fire never burnt in Collingwood. Nelson,
with the instinct of genius, intended the Fleet to anchor,
turning the very dangers of the shoals of Trafalgar into
a security. Collingwood, simply a naval machine, and
never having been his own master all his life, and not
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being a genius, thought a shoal was a thing to be avoided,
and, consequently, wrecked the ships unfitted to cope
with a gale, and so to weather these shoals I Collingwood
ought to have had the moon given him for his crest, for
all his glory was reflected from Nelson, the sun of glory I
Collingwood was an old woman !
History is a record of exploded ideas. In what sense ?
Fighting conditions are all altered. The wind formerly
determined the course of action ; now it is only the mind
of man. One man and the best man is wanted — not a
fossil ; not a careful man. Fleets were formerly days
coming into action, now only minutes.
Two Fleets can now be fighting each other in twenty
minutes from first seeing each other's smoke.
Formerly sea battles were Sailors' battles, now they
are Officers*.
At Trafalgar, Nelson was walking up and down the
Quarter-Deck and having a yarn with his Flag Captain,
Hardy, at the very zenith of the Action ! It was the
common sailors only who were then at work. How
different now ! The Admiral everything !
Now, the different phases of a Naval War are as
capable of as exact a demonstration as a proposition in
Euclid, because steam has annihilated wind and sea. We
are now trained to a higher standard, and the arts of
strategy and tactics have accordingly been immensely
magnified. Make an initial mistake in strategy or tactics,
and then it may be said of them as of women by Con-
greve :
" Hell has no fury like a woman scorn'd."
The last place to defend England will be the Shores of
England.
The Frontiers of England are the Coasts of the Enemy.
We ought to be there five minutes before war breaks out.
Naval Supremacy once destroyed is destroyed for ever.
Carthage, Spain, Holland, the great commercial nations
92
THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING
of the past, had the sea wrested from them, and then they
fell.
A successful Mercantile Marine leads to a successful
War Navy.
It is solely owing to our command of the sea that we
have been able to build up our magnificent Empire.
Admiral Mahan's most famous passage is :—
" The world has never seen a more impressive demon-
stration of the influence of Sea Power upon its history.
Those far-distant, storm-beaten ships of Nelson, upon
which the Grand Army never looked, stood between it
and the dominion of the World."
" Secrecy and Secretiveness."
There are three types of Secrecy : —
I. The Ostrich.
II. The Red Box.
HI. The Real Thing.
I. The ostrich buries his head in the sand of the
desert when pursued by his enemy, and because he can't
see the enemy concludes the enemy can't see him ! Such
is the secrecy of the secretive and detestable habit which
hides from our own officers what is known to the world
in other Navies.
II. The secrecy of the Red Box is that of a distinguished
Admiral who, with great pomp, used to have his red
despatch box carried before him (like the umbrella of an
African King), as containing the most secret plans ; but
one day, the box being unfortunately capsized and burst
open, the only contents that fell out were copies of
" La Vie Parisienne " !
Such, it is feared, was the secrecy of those wonderful
detailed plans for war we hear of in the past as having
been secreted in secret drawers, to be brought out " when
the time comes," and when no one has any time to study
93
RECORDS
them, supposing, that is, they ever existed; and, remember,
it is detailed attention to minutiae and the consideration
of trifles which spells success.
III. There is the legitimate secrecy and secretiveness
of hiding from your dearest friend the moment and the
nature of your rush at the enemy, and which of all the
variety of operations you have previously practised with the
Fleet you will bring into play ! But all your Captains will
instantly know your mind and intentions, for you will
hoist the signal or spark the wireless message, Plan A,
or Plan B . . . , or Plan Z !
*' After I have made known my intentions," began
Nelson's last order ; and it expressed the experience of
a hundred battles — ^that the Second in Conamand (and
in these days it may well be amplified into the individual
officers in command) are to fulfil the spirit of the peace
manoeuvre teaching, and assist by the teaching in carrying
out the meaning of brief signals to the destruction of the
enemy's Fleet. The secret of success lies in the first
part of the sentence : " After I have made knozvn my
intentions.'*
Confidence is a plant of slow growth. Long and
constant association of ships of a Fleet is essential to
success. A new-comer is often more dangerous than the
enemy.
An Army may be improvised in case of war, but not
a Navy.
Immense importance of constant readiness at all times.
A Fleet always ready to go to sea at an hour's notice is a
splendid national life preserver ! Here comes in the
water-tube boiler ! Without previous notice or even an
inkling, we have been ready to start in one hour with
water-tube boiler ships. You can't exaggerate this I
One bucket of water ready on the spot in the shape of an
instantly ready Fleet will stop the conflagration of war
which all the Fire Brigades of the world won't stop a
little later on 1 Never forget that from the very nature of
94
THE ESSENTIALS OF SEA FIGHTING
sea fighting an initial Naval disaster is irretrievable,
irreparable, eternal. Naval Colensos have no Paarde-
bergs !
Suddenness is the secret of success at sea, because
suddenness is practicable, and remember that rashness
may be the height of prudence. How very rash Nelson
was at the Nile to go in after dark to fight the French
Fleet with no chart of the shoals of Aboukir !
But you must be sure of your Fleet and they must be
sure of you ! Every detail previously thought out. Trust
no one ! (My friend, Maurice Bourke, used to tell a
story of the Yankee barber, who put up in his shop :
" To trust is to bust, and to bust is hell ! " which means
" no credit given "). Make the very best of things as
they are. Criminal to wait for something better. " We
strain at the gnat of perfection and swallow the camel of
unreadiness."
" The Great Silent Navy."
The usual motto is " Silence " or " Deeds, not words,'*
which you will see ornamenting some conspicuous place
in a ship.i It has been said by landsmen that the most
striking feature to them in a British man-of-war when at
sea is the noiseless, ceaseless, sleepless, yet unobtrusive,
energy that characterises everyone and everything on
board ! If so, we sailors don't notice it, and it is the result
of nature ! Gales of wind, sudden fogs, immense speeds,
the much multiplied dangers of collision and wreck from
these terrific speeds, as in Destroyers and even in large
ships, all these circumstances automatically react on all
on board and are nature's education by environment.
There is no place for the unthinking or the lethargic.
He is a positive danger ! Every individual in a man-of-
war has his work cut out ! " Think and act for yourself "
^ These mottoes were painted up in my first ship, and I have had
them in every ship I have commanded since.
95
> % RECORDS
is to be the motto of the future, not " Let us wait for
orders ! "
Such may be said of sea fights ! No mountains delay
us, and, as Scripture says, the way of a ship is trackless !
The enemy will suddenly confront us as an Apparition I
At every moment we must be ready ! Can this be acquired
by grown men ? No ! it is the force of habit. You must
commence early. Our Nelsons and Benbows began the
sea life when they first put their breeches on ! The
brother of the Black Prince (John of Gaunt) joined the
Navy and was in a sea fight when he was lo years of age I
Far exceeding anything known in history does our future
Trafalgar depend on promptitude and rapid decision, and
on every eventuality having been foreseen by those in
command. But these attributes cannot be acquired late
in life, nor by those who have lived the life of cabbages !
So begin early and work continuously. Then if there is
war your opportunity must come ! Like Kitchener, you
will then walk over the cabbages !
96
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CHAPTER VIII
JONAH S GOURD
" Came up in a night
And perished in a night."
Jonah, chap, iv, verse lo.
The above words came into my mind late last night
when tired out with destroying masses of papers and
letters (mostly malignant abuse or the emanations of
senile dotage), I sat back in my chair and soliloquised
over what had happened to all these pestilent attackers
of mine ;' and I said to myself in those immortal
words in Jonah, '' Doest thou well to he angry?''
and for a few brief moments I really quite felt like
Stephen praying for his enemies when they stoned
him ! What has become of all these stone-throwers
and backbiters, I asked myself ! Like Jonah's Gourd
— ^* A worm has smote them all " — and they have
withered into obscurity. But yet it's interesting, as
this is a Book of Records, to tear out one sheet or so and
reproduce here some replies to the nefarious nonsense
one had to deal with at that time of democratising the
Navy. I reprint verbatim a few pages I wrote in October,
1906. These particular words that follow here were
97 H
RECORDS
directed against those who assailed my principles of
(i) The fighting efficiency of the Fleet, (2) Its instant
readiness for war.
Admiralty Policy : Replies to Criticisms.
[In the autumn of 1906 there was considerable criticism
of the Government's naval policy, particularly in the
daily and weekly Press. Just before the dissolution of
Mr. Balfour's administration. Lord Cawdor, then First
Lord, had issued a memorandum on ** Admiralty Work
and Progress," dated November 30th, 1905, in which
it was stated that " At the present time strategic re-
quirements necessitate an output of four large armoured
ships annually." In July, 1906, however, it was
announced in Parliament that only three battleships
would be included in the current programme, the reason
for the abandonment of the fourth ship being that there
was a temporary cessation of warship building on the
Continent caused by the advent of the " Dreadnought "
and the *' Invincibles." Coming in the first year of
office of the new Liberal administration, however, the
reduction in the British programme aroused genuine
disquiet among certain people, and by others was utilised
for a political attack on the Government, who were
alleged to be jeopardising the security of the country.
In addition, there was another body of opinion strongly
adverse to certain features in the design of the new
** Dreadnoughts." The following notes were prepared
by Lord Fisher at the time for use by Lord Tweedmouth
and Mr. Edmund Robertson (afterwards Lord Lochee),
who were then First Lord and Parliamentary Secretary
respectively.]
The most brilliant preacher of our generation has said
what a stimulus it is to have always some friends to save
98
JONAH'S GOURD
us from that " Woe unto you when all men shall speak
well of you " ! When criticism goes, life is done !
You must squeeze the fragrant leaf to get the delicious
scent ! Hence, it may be truly said that the Board of
Admiralty should just now heartily shake hands with
themselves, because Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (in
the shape of three Retrograde Don Quixotes) are
trying to raise a rebellion, but the earth will now open
and swallow them all up quick as in the days of Moses.
They and all their company, with their small battleships
and their slow speeds, and their invasion fright and foreign
shipbuilding houses of cards are each and all capable of
absolute pulverisation ! Why people don't laugh at it
all is the wonder ! Here, for instance, is a military
correspondent lecturing the Board of Admiralty on types
of ships ; and Admirals, whose names were bywords
of inefficiency and ineptitude when they were afloat,
and who never — one single one of them — left anything
better than they found it, are being seriously quoted by
serious magazines and serious newspapers as " a most
distinguished Admiral," etc., etc. *' These prophets
prophesy falsely and the people love to have it so,"
as Jeremiah says ! This is because of the inherent
pessimistic British instinct !
Perhaps the most laughable and silly emanation of these
Rip Van Winkles is the outcry against large ships and
high speeds, and an Admiral has gone so far as to resort
to mathematics and trigonometrical absurdities to prove
that slow speed and 6-inch guns are of primary import-
ance in a sea fight ! ! ! Archbishop Whately dealt
99 H 2
RECORDS
with a similar critic by a celebrated jeu d' esprit entitled
'* Historic Doubts relative to Napoleon Buonaparte." The
Archbishop by a process of fallacious reasoning demon-
strated with all the exactitude of a mathematical problem
the impossibility of the existence of such a person as
Buonaparte ! But as someone has well said, if these strange
oddities can convert our enemies (the Germans) to the
priceless advantage of slow ships and small guns they are
patriots in disguise, and Providence is employing them
(as it employs worms and other such things) in assisting
to work out the unfailing and invincible supremacy
of the British Navy.
But to say no more — the plain man sees that it is of
vital importance that we should obtain the highest
possible speed in order that, in face of emergencies on
the south or east or west of the British Isles, we may
be able to concentrate adequate Naval Force with as
little delay as possible, and that had the British Admir-
alty held the opinions expressed by " the Blackwood
Balaam " our battleships would still be steaming at
about 10 knots an hour, because he must remember
that the progress which has been made from lo knots
to 22 knots (as attained in " Dreadnought " at deep, or
war load draught) has been gradual, and at any period
during this progression it was quite open to other
Balaams to retard the action of the Admiralty by pointing
out that the slight gain in speed which has been chron-
icled year by year in battleships was really not worth
the price which was being paid for it ! But, Blessed
be God ! In this and all other criticisms of Admiralty
100
JONAH'S GOURD
Policy the public pulse is totally unaffected, and the
reputation of the Admiralty unlowered.
For 12 months past not a single battleship has been
laid down in Europe, and this simply and solely owing
to the dramatic appearance of the " Dreadnought,"
which upset all the calculations in Foreign Admiralties
and deserved the calculated letter written by Lord
Selborne to the Committee on Designs. The Admiralty
has done more than all the Peace party with all their
dinners to arrest the contest for Sea Power !
In the criticisms we are dealing with, ** Party " as
usual has come before ** Patriotism," but the Sea Lords
can, each one of them, confidently say, with the poet's
version of a patriot's motto.
■■(»^*^
" Sworn to no party, of no sect am I,
I can't be silent and I will not lie,"
and so the Sea Lords have no desire to avoid any odium
the Tory papers ^ may be pleased to bring upon them.
There is undoubted authority for stating that a skilfully
organised " Fleet Street " conspiracy aided by Naval
Malcontents is endeavouring to excite the British public
against the Board of Admiralty, but it has fallen flat.
There is, however, a very serious danger in the
1 One Sample out of Many. — " Lord Tweedmouth and Mr.
Robertson, having tasted blood in their reduction of this year's Esti-
mates, are about to strike a blow at the vital efi&ciency of the Navy.
But what are we to think of the naval officers on the Admiralty Board,
men who cannot plead the blindness and ignorance of their civilian
colleagues ? No one knows better than Sir John Fisher the real nature
and the inevitable consequences of those acts to which he is a con-
senting party. And we are not speaking at random when we assert
that more than any one man, the responsibility and the guilt for those
reductions lies at his door." (The Globe, 21 Sept. 1906,)
lOI
RECORDS
propagation of the view so ably combated by Sir C.
Dilke in his speech at Coleford, Forest of Dean, on
September 27th last, that this country requires a military
force of 640,000 men !
His comparison of Navy and Army expenditure is
illuminating but has been totally ignored by the Press
and the country. The " Fiery Cross '* has been sent
round to resuscitate the " Invasion Bogey."
There has been for many years past a general feeling
in this country that questions of international relation-
ship and of national defence should be withdrawn as
far as possible from the arena of party politics. Such
divergences of opinion as must exist on these topics
have no obvious connection with the divisions of our
internal politics ; and it is surely legitimate to go further
than this, and say that the main problems in these
departments can be dealt with in such a way as to win
the assent of every reasonable man, whatever his opinions
may be on Trade Unionism or Elementary Education.
At any rate successive Boards of Admiralty have for
something like 20 years acted on the assumption —
which has hitherto been justified — ^that their policy
would be accepted by the public as based on a fully
considered estimate of the requirements of national
defence, and, if criticised (as it was bound to be from
time to time), criticised on other than partisan grounds.
Between the date of the Naval Defence Act and 1904
the Navy Estimates were approximately trebled. The
increase was continuous under four successive First
Lords, and under both Liberal and Conservative Govern-
102
JONAH'S GOURD
ments. In 1 904 the maximum of the curve of expenditure
was reached, and the Navy Estimates began to decline,
at first rapidly, under a Conservative Government,
then more slowly, and in part subject to certain provisos,
under the present Liberal Government. And this, it
appears, is the moment chosen for the first considerable
outbreak of political rancour in naval affairs since the
modern Navy came into existence !
It is, however, of such supreme importance to the
Navy that the Admiralty Board should not be suspected
of being governed in its decisions on matters of national
defence by partisan considerations that it may be well
to set out again, and very explicitly, what are the reasons
which have led the Board to adopt the policy now
impugned.
Here we have to go back to first principles. It has
become too much the fashion to employ the phrase
" a two-Power standard " as a mere shibboleth. The
principle this phrase embodies has been of the utmost
value in the past, and is likely to be so in the future ;
but if used unintelligently at the present moment it
merely gives the enemy cause to blaspheme. Great
Britain must, it is agreed, maintain at all costs the
command of the sea. Therefore we must be decisively
stronger than any possible enemy. Who then is the
possible enemy ? Ten years ago, or even less, we should
probably have answered, France and Russia in alliance.
As they were then respectively the second and third
naval Powers, the two-Power standard had an actuality
which it has since lost. The United States and Ger-
103
RECORDS
many are competing for the second place which France
has already almost yielded. Russia's fleet has practically
disappeared. Japan's has sprung to the front rank.
Of the four Powers which are primarily in question,
Japan is our ally, France is our close friend, America
is a kindred State with whom we may indeed have
evanescent quarrels, but with whom, it is scarcely too
much to say, we shall never have a parricidal war. The
other considerable naval Powers are Italy and Austria,
of whom we are the secular friends, and whose treaty
obligations are in the highest degree unlikely to force
them into a rupture with us which could in no possible
way serve their own interests.
There remains Germany. Undoubtedly she is a
possible enemy .^ While there is no specific cause of
dispute there is a general commercial and — on the
German side — political rivalry which has unfortunately
but indisputably caused bad blood between the two
countries. For the moment, it would be safe to build
against Germany only. But we cannot build for the
moment : the Board of Admiralty are the trustees of
future generations of their countrymen, who may not
enjoy the same comparatively serene sky as ourselves.
The ships we lay down this year may have their influence
on the international situation twenty years hence, when
Germany — or whoever our most likely antagonist may
then be — may have the opportunity of the co-operation
(even if only temporary) of another great naval Power.
Hence a two- Power standard, rationally interpreted, ia
* This was written in October, 1906.
104
JONAH'S GOURD
by no means out of date. But it is not a rational inter-
pretation to say that we must instantly lay down as many
ships as any other two Powers are at this moment laying
down. We must take long views ; we must be sure
what other Powers are doing ; we must take the average
of their efforts, and average our own efforts in response.
Now this matter of averaging the shipbuilding, of
equalising the programme over a number of years,
deserves further consideration. Some Powers, notably
Germany, attempt to achieve this end by creating long
statutory programmes. The British Admiralty has aban-
doned the idea since the Naval Defence Act. For us,
in fact, it would be a thoroughly vicious system. For
a Power which is trying to '* set the pace," and which is
glad to avoid annual discussion of the financial aspect
of the question, it, no doubt, has its advantages. But
Great Britain does not build to a naval strength that
can be determined a priori ; she builds simply and solely
to maintain the command of the sea against other
Powers. For this end the Admiralty must have its
hands free to determine from year to year what the
shipbuilding requirements are. But, again, this does
not mean that our efforts must be spasmodic, that be-
cause foreign Powers lay down six ships one year and
none the next, therefore we must do the same. For
administrative reasons, which should be obvious, and
which in any case this is not the place to dilate upon,
it is very necessary that shipbuilding should approximate
year by year, so far as practicable, to some normal
figure, and that increases or decreases, when they become
105
RECORDS
necessary, should be made gradually. This double
principle, of determining the programme from year to
year, and yet averaging the number of ships built over a
number of years, has to be firmly grasped by anyone who
desires to understand the Admiralty shipbuilding policy.
With this preamble we are in a position to discuss
the actual situation. And first we have to consider
what is the existing relative strength of Great Britain
and the other naval Powers. About this there is really
no difference of opinion — British naval supremacy was
never better assured than at the present moment. Even
admitting the combination of two of the three next naval
Powers (France, Germany, and the United States) to be
conceivable, it is certain that any two of them would
hesitate to attack us, and it is more than probable that
if they did they would be defeated, even without the
assistance of our Japanese allies. The alleged alarm as
to our naval strength is therefore admittedly in regard
to the future, not in regard to the present. And here
(to digress for a moment) we may remark that agitations
have occurred in earlier years when it ~was supposed
that some foreign Power or combination of Powers was
actually in a position to sweep us off the Channel, but
never before have we been invited to panic by prophecy.
Is there not something slightly absurd in alarm — not
calculation, for that is justifiable enough, but alarm —
about our position in 1920 ? At any rate, it is clear that
it is the future which we are called on to consider.
In this connection two facts have to be remembered :
first, that we start in a position of security, and need
106
JONAH'S GOURD
therefore be in no undue haste to build more ships ;
secondly y that we are on the threshold of a new era in naval
construction, and can therefore not rest content with
the advantage which we secured in an era which is
passing away. The problem need not be complicated
by a somewhat futile attempt to bring the existing and
the new ships of our own and foreign navies to a common
denominator ; we must build new ships to meet new
ships, always, however, remembering that until the new
ships are in commission we have got plenty of the old
ones to fight with.
But here it is really impossible to avoid commenting
on the gross insincerity of some recent attacks on the
Admiralty. It was no doubt only to be expected that
the four ships of the Cawdor memorandum, which
were explicitly stated to be a maximum, should always
be quoted as a minimum by anyone who wishes to
belabour the present Board. But there is a further
point which the convenient shortness of the journalistic
memory has suffered to be overlooked. When the
Cawdor memorandum was issued, it was generally
(though wrongly) assumed that only two of the four
ships would be battleships, and two ** armoured cruisers."
And at that time the public had certainly no idea what
the " Invincible " Fast Battle Cruiser type was like,
with its 6 knots superiority of speed to everything afloat,
and the biggest guns alive. The " Invincibles " are,
as a matter of fact, perfectly fit to be in line of battle
with the battle fleet, and could more correctly be described
as battleships which, thanks to their speed, can drive any-
107
RECORDS
thing afloat off the seas. But this was not known, ancf
the calculations generally made in the Press added only
two units per annum to our battle fleet. Yet there
was no outcry ; that was reserved to a later date, when
it was beginning to be understood that the " Invincibles "
could be reckoned side by side with the ** Dreadnought,"
and it had been announced that three new " Dread-
noughts," instead of two, were to be laid down this
winter. Surely the ways of the party journalist are
past finding out.
In this connection it may be well also to make some
observations on the diminution by the authority of the
Board of programmes of shipbuilding already approved
by Parliament. The allegation that there is anything
unconstitutional in the procedure may be left to the
constitutional lawyer to pulverise. Probably all that is
usually meant by the statement is that it is desirable
to let Parliament know of the change in the programme
as soon as convenient after it has been decided, and to
this there would usually be no possible objection. But
the idea that, because Parliament has voted a certain
sum of money for the current year's programme, and
certain commitments for future years (a much more
important matter), therefore the Board is bound to build
ships it really does not want, is not only pernicious,
but also ridiculous in the extreme. The only legitimate
ground for complaint, if any, would be that the Board
had misled Parliament in the first instance by over-
estimating the requirements. The Board are faced
each summer with the necessity of saying what they
io8
JONAH'S GOURD
expect to have to lay down i8 months later. This,
of course, is prophecy. Generally it is found to be
pretty accurate, but the advent of the new era in ship-
building (which is principally due to the lessons of the
only big naval war of modern times) has made prophecy
more than usually difficult. Moreover, if the matter
is at all in doubt, the prophet has special inducements
to select the higher rather than the lower figure. In-
crease of a programme during a given year will involve
a supplementary estimate with all its accompanying
inconveniences. If on the other hand it is found that
the original programme was unnecessarily extensive,
it is a comparatively simple matter to cut it down. It
is best of course to have the right number of new ships
in the Navy Estimates ; but it is next best to have a
number in excess of that ultimately required, which
can be pruned as requisite.
Let us repeat : sufficient unto the year is the ship-
building thereof. Panic at the present time is stupid.
The Board of Admiralty is not to be frightened by
paper programmes. They will cautiously do all that
they judge necessary to secure the existing naval suprem-
acy of this country : the moment that is threatened they
will throw caution to the winds and outbuild our rivals
at all costs.
H.M. Ships " Dreadnought " and " Invincible."
The accompanying papers^ contain arguments in
support of the " Dreadnought " and " Invincible."
1 Not reprinted.
109
RECORDS
The features of these novel designs, which have been
most adversely criticised, are : —
1. The uniform Big Gun armament.
2. The great increase in speed.
It is admitted that strategically speed is of very great
importance. It enables the fleet or fleets possessing
it to concentrate at any desired spot as quickly as possible,
and it must therefore exercise an important influence
on the course of a naval war, rapid concentration being
one of the chief factors of success.
Many adverse critics of high speed maintain that it
is the weapon of the weaker Fleet, the only advantage
conferred being the ability to refuse an action by running
away : two cases may be cited from the actions of the
late war in the East showing the fallacy of this argument
and that the Japanese successes were solely due to a
command of speed.
In the battle of the loth August, 1904, after the
preliminary manoeuvres, the Russian Admiral turned to
the eastward at 2.30 p.m. to escape to Vladivostok.
The Japanese Fleet was then on the starboard quarter
of the Russian and practically out of range. Captain
Pakenham, the British Naval Attache, who was on
board Admiral Togo's flagship, in his report, states
that the '' * Tzaesarevitch ' (leading the Russian line)
was almost out of sight." A slightly superior speed
in the Russian line would have ensured their escape,
but the excess of speed lay with the Japanese and they
slowly drew up into range and reopened the action ;
no
JONAH'S GOURD
but it was late in the evening before they drew far enough
ahead to concentrate a heavy fire on the leader of the
Russian line and so break up their formation. When
this was accomplished it was nearly dark and the Russians,
though thrown into confusion and beaten, were not
destroyed, for the approaching darkness and the de-
stroyer threat necessitated the Japanese Battle Fleet
hauling off, yet the retreat to Vladivostok was pre-
vented .
A higher speed in the Japanese line would have wrought
confusion to the Russians earlier in the day, and probably
have allowed a sufficient period of daylight for their
total destruction.
Again. At the opening of the Battle of the Sea of
Japan in May, the Japanese Fleet, due to skilful hand-
ling, held a commanding position, giving a concentration
of fire on the heads of the Russian lines. Had they
not possessed superior speed, the Japanese would
rapidly have lost this advantage, as the Russians turned
away to starboard and compelled the Japanese to move
along a circle of larger radius ; their greater speed
enabled the Japanese to maintain their advantage and
so continue the concentration of fire on the Russian van
until so much damage had been inflicted that the
Russians lost all order and were crushed.
These, therefore, are two of the most convincing
instances that could now be given, where speed was of
overwhelming tactical value to the victorious side, and
such evidence is unanswerable and is a justification of
the speeds adopted in the designs of the new ships.
Ill
RECORDS
Defects and Repairs
[Lord Fisher found fruitful scope for his reforming
energy in the Royal dockyards, and was very keen on
making them efficient in working as well as economical
in administration. The former tendency had been for
ships to accumulate defects until they went into dock,
when their stay was accordingly prolonged, and the
longer they were in dockyard hands the more work was
provided for the officials and workmen, so that there
was a double incentive to spend money. In the following
memorandum, Lord Fisher insists that this drain upon
the limited funds available for the Navy must stop, and
explains how the Admiralty meant to discriminate
between vessels which it was essential to keep thoroughly
efficient and others which were not worth any, or so
much, money for repairs. Elsewhere in this volume
Lord Fisher has shown how he got rid of 6,000 redundant
dockyard workmen.]
The head has got to wag the tail. The tail sometimes
now wags the head. It is for the Admiralty, and the
Admiralty alone, to decide whether^ hozVy or when the
defects and repairs of the Fleet are to be taken in hand.
The sole governing condition is what the Admiralty
require for fighting purposes ! It is desirable to put an
extreme case to accentuate this : —
In the secrets of Admiralty Fighting Policy undesir-
able to make known to our enemies there are certain
vessels never going to be used for actual fighting, but
they serve an extremely useful purpose for subsidiary
purposes. In such vessels there are defects and repairs
of a particular character that might stand over till
Doomsday ! whilst there are other vessels where only
112
Sir John Fisher going on board the Royal Yacht.
JONAH'S GOURD
defects affecting purely seagoing and actually direct
fighting efficiency should be attended to. All this
entirely depends on our probable enemy and may vary
from time to time, and the sole judge can only be the
Admiralty. But what it is feared now obtains is a blind
rushing at all defects and repairs of all kinds and classes
in all vessels. It is perfectly natural that the Commander-
in-Chief and Admirals Superintendent may wish for
the millennium of having all their vessels perfect — ^but
this cannot be. What does it lead to ? Extreme local
pressure accentuated by Parliamentary action to enter
more Dockyard workmen. What does this mean ? It
means in some recent cases that practically the upkeep
of three cruisers is swallowed up in pay to Dockyard
workmen ! No — the Admiralty Policy is sound, con-
sistent and irrefutable, which is never to exceed the
normal number of Dockyard workmen as now fixed
by the recent Committee, and have such a great margin
of Naval strength — such as we now possess — as admits
of a leisurely and economical refit of ships without
extravagant overtime or inefficient hustling of work.
Therefore, what it comes to is this : — The Admiralty
decide what vessels they require first and what defects
and repairs in those vessels are most material, and they
give orders accordingly. It is not the responsibility of
the local authorities at all to say that this vessel or that
vessel must be completed at once, for, as before-mentioned,
it may be that in the Admiralty scheme of fighting those
vessels are not required at all.
The Controller has great difficulties to contend with
113 ^
RECORDS
because he has not the free hand of a private employer
who can discharge or enter men just as he requires.
To get rid of a Dockyard workman involves agitation
in every direction — in Parliament, at the Treasury and
locally, and even Bishops throw themselves into the
fray, like the Bishop of Winchester at Portsmouth,
instead of looking after his own disorganised and mutin-
ous Established Church. There is now a plethora of
shipwrights at Chatham, because the Treasury will not
allow their transfer to other yards, and a paucity of
boilermakers because unwanted men occupy their places,
and the scandal exists of men being entered at Devonport
with men having no work at Chatham. But, of course,
this is one of the blessings of Parliamentary Government,
Treasury Control, and a Free Press !
Where the special influence of the Commander-in-
Chief is desired by the Admiralty is to bring before
them cases where defects have not been dealt with in
the initial stages by the ship's artificers and so allowed
to increase as to necessitate Dockyard intervention.
Such cases would be drastically dealt with by the
Admiralty if only they could be informed of them, but
there is an amiable desire to avoid severe punishments,
and the dire result is that the zealous and efficient are
on the same footing as the incompetent and the careless
who get more leave and time with their friends because
their vessels are longer in Dockyard hands.
It is desired to give prominence to the following
facts : — It is a matter of everyday occurrence that vessels
come home from Foreign stations, often immense
114
JONAH'S GOURD
distances, as from China or Australia, and are inspected
by the Commander-in-Chief on arrival home and
reported thoroughly efficient, and praise is given by the
Admiralty accordingly, and the full-power steam trial
is conducted with great care, and the mere fact of the
vessel having steamed home those thousands of miles
is itself a manifest evidence of her propelling machinery
being efficient, and yet instantly after paying off we are
asked to believe that such a vessel instantly drops down
to a totally incapable condition of either seagoing or
fighting efficiency, by our being presented with a bill
of thousands upon thousands of pounds.
The attention of the Commanders-in-Chief of the
Home Ports and of the Admirals Superintendent will
be specially drawn to a new series of instructions which
will specifically detail their responsibility in carrying
out the orders of the Admiralty in regard to defects
and repairs. It is admitted that no comprehensive
statement has as yet been issued as to the order and
urgency in which both Fleet and Dockyard labour
should be applied.
This statement is now about to be issued — it is based,
and can only be based, on the knowledge of what vessels
are most required for war at that particular time, and so
must emanate direct from the Admiralty, who alone can
decide on this matter. For instance, at this present
moment there are vessels, even in the first line as some
might suppose, which would not be employed until the
last resort, whilst there are others almost believed to
be out of the fighting category which under certain
115 12
RECORDS
present conditions might be required for the first blow.
This fact came so notably into prominence some months
since that it has led to the adoption of what may be
termed the '* sliding scale " of nucleus crews, with the
Torpedo craft and Submarines at almost full comple-
ment down to the vessels in *' Special Reserve " with
only a '' skeleton " crew capable of raising steam periodi-
cally and working only the heavy armament. So no
local knowledge could determine from day to day which
are the first vessels required. This is changing from
day to day and it is the duty of the necessarily very few
to determine the daily fighting requirements. The
ideal is for only one to know, and the nearer this is
adhered to the more likely are we to surprise our enemies.
The Use of the Gunboat.
[The notes and letters which follow were prepared by
Lord Fisher in the course of his advocacy that the
Navy Estimates and the Service itself should not be
saddled with establishments not directly contributing
to the fighting efficiency of the Fleet and its instant
readiness for war. Such services, he maintained, not
only reduced the sum of money available for the real
work of the Navy, but constituted elements of weakness
in the event of hostilities. The first document concerns
the maintenance of small craft on foreign stations, on
which a number of ** gunboats " were kept to fulfil
duties for departments other than the Admiralty. Lord
Fisher diff^erentiates between vessels which the Board
should rightly supply, and others which had no naval
value but were retained for duties connected with the
Foreign or Colonial Offices — ^for which, if necessary, a
proper fighting ship could be lent temporarily and then
ii6
JONAH'S GOURD
returned to her squadron. The second document deals
with the Coastguard, which no longer served the purpose
of a reserve for the Navy, and which had come to be
mainly employed on duties connected with revenue,
life-saving, etc., although paid for out of Navy Votes
and employing Navy personnel. Thirdly, the Admiralty
letter on Observatories shows that heavy expense was
borne upon naval funds for duties no longer necessary
to the Royal Navy.]
In the Cawdor memorandum of last year (1905) will
be found an exposition of the Admiralty policy in this
matter, and attention may particularly be drawn to the
following passage : —
" Gunboats, and all vessels of like class, have been
gradually losing value except for definite purposes under
special conditions. As far as this country is concerned,
the very places consecrated as the sphere of gunboat
activity are those remote from the covering aid of large
ships. Strained relations may occur at the shortest
notice ; the false security of the period of drifting
imperceptibly into actual hostilities is proverbial, and
the nervous dread of taking any action that might even
be construed into mere precautionary measures of de-
fence, which experience has shown to be one of the
peculiar symptoms of such a period, is apt to deprive
these small vessels of their last remaining chance of
security by not allowing them to fall back towards
material support. The broadcast use of gunboats in
peace time is a marked strategic weakness, and larger
vessels can generally do the work equally well, in fact
far better, for they really possess the strength necessary
117
RECORDS
to uphold the prestige of the flag they fly, whereas the
gunboat is merely an abstract symbol of the power of
the nation, not a concrete embodiment of it.
" It might be thought that the withdrawal of the
small non-effective vessels and the grouping of fleets
and squadrons at the strategic positions for war involved
the loss of British prestige, and of the * Showing the
Flag ' (as it was termed). But the actual fact is that
never before in naval history has there been a more
universal display of sea power than during this year by
this country. The Channel Fleet in the North Sea and
Baltic receiving the courtesies of Holland, Denmark,
and Germany ; the Atlantic Fleet at Brest ; the Medi-
terranean Fleet at Algiers ; the Fourth Cruiser Squadron,
consisting of five powerful fighting vessels, now in the
West Atlantic ; a powerful squadron of six of the finest
armoured cruisers in the world visiting Lisbon, Canada,
Newfoundland, and United States ; a squadron of
cruisers, under a Commodore, proceeding from Labrador
to Cape Horn and back by the coast of Africa, and two
cruisers visiting the Pacific Coast and the adjacent
islands ; the movements of the Cape Squadron and of
the Eastern Fleet in China, Australia, and the Indian
Ocean : so imposing and ubiquitous a display of the flag
and of naval power has never before been attained by
our own Navy.'*
The statement goes on to explain the special circum-
stances — use in shallow inland waters, etc., etc., which
alone are held by the Admiralty to justify the use of
gunboats.
ii8
JONAH'S GOURD
This policy is from time to time impugned by people
who have no need to count the cost of the alternative
policy. Doubtless it would be convenient, as a tem-
porary emergency arises here or there over the surface
of the globe, if at that very spot some British cruiser or
gunboat promptly appeared ready to protect British
interests, or to sink in the attempt. Indeed, for some
time this was the ideal at which the Admiralty aimed.
But since the redistribution of the Fleet the Empire
has had to do without the ubiquitous gunboat, and, if
the truth be told, scarcely seems to have missed it.
There are one or two valuable cases in point. For a
long time the Foreign Office, or rather the Ambassador
at Constantinople, pressed for the restoration of the
second stationnaire. The Admiralty sternly refused.
The only noticeable result of this dangerous policy so
far has been that the French have followed our example
and withdrawn their second vessel.
An even more remarkable case occurred in Uruguay.
A poaching Canadian sealer had been captured by the
Uruguayan authorities, and language was used as if
the disruption of the Empire would follow a refusal on
the part of the Admiralty to liberate her crew by force.
For a time the Admiralty was practically in revolt
against H.M. Government, and then — everything blew
over. The dispute was settled by diplomatic action and
■t
the local courts of law.
The question of the small vessel for police duties will
long be with us. Vice-Consuls and Resident Commis-
sioners will, no doubt, continue to act on the great
119
RECORDS
principle : When in doubt wire for a gunboat. The
Foreign and Colonial Offices, to whom the dispatch of
a gunboat means no more than persuading a gentleman
in Whitehall to send a telegram saying she is to go, will
probably never quite realise why the gentleman should
be so perverse as to refuse. But the matter is really
now a ** chose jugde " ; the Admiralty battle has been
fought and won, and it only remains for the Admiralty
to adhere to its principles and decline to give way
simply for the sake of a quiet life.
Coast Guard
June, 1906.
The Coast Guard Service was transferred from the
control of the Commissioners of Customs to that of the
Admiralty by the Coast Guard Service Act, 1856, in
order to make better provision for —
(i) The defence of the coasts of the realm ;
(ii) The more ready manning of His Majesty's
Navy in case of war or sudden emergency ;
(iii) The protection of the Revenue ;
and there is little doubt that at that time the Coast
Guard force was required for these three purposes.
Since that date, however, these requirements have
been greatly modified by the great developments that
have taken place in steam, in electricity, and generally
in the conduct of Naval warfare, and also as regards
the inducements and facilities for smuggling.
It is now considered that about 170 War Signal and
120
JONAH'S GOURD
Wireless Telegraphy Stations in the United Kingdom
are sufficient to give warning of the approach of an
enemy's ships, and that, as far as the use of the Coast
Guard for Coast Defence is concerned, the remaining
530 Stations and their personnel are quite unnecessary.
As an Active Service force the Coast Guard is far
from fulfillifig modern fighting requirements^ which are so
exacting that a man's efficiency depends upon his being
continuously associated with highly technical duties on
hoard ship^ and employment in the Coast Guard (even
with the arranged periodical training in the Fleet) is found
to he inconsistent with these requirements.
Again, as a Reserve, though it fulfils the requirements
of such a force, yet its cost (largely due to the heavy
expense of housing the men and their families) is out
of all proportion to that at which the efficient Royal
Fleet Reserve can now be maintained.
The Coast Guard being treated as an Active Service
force in the Estimates, the numbers are included in the
number of men voted for the Fleet, and help to make
up the total of 129,000 ; but as the 4,000 Coast Guard
men are appropriated for duties away from the chief
Naval ports, they are not available for the ordinary work
of the Fleet, and the peace resources are correspondingly
reduced, while the extra charges for the Coast Guard
tend largely to increase the expense of maintaining the
Active Service force.
If, on the other hand, the Coast Guard be treated as
a Reserve only, the expense is still more disproportionate,
as, in comparison with the small retainers, charges for
I3J
RECORDS
a week's annual drill and small prospective pension,
which make up the whole expense entailed in the main-
tenance of the Royal Fleet Reserve, there are the Full
Pay, Victualling, Housing, and numerous miscellaneous
allowances and charges of a permanent force maintained
in small units under the most expensive conditions.
Therefore, the maintenance of the Coast Guard by
the Admiralty not only entails a reduction of the number
of highly-trained active service ratings in the Fleet at
sea, but also an unnecessarily large expenditure on a
Reserve.
As regards the use of the Coast Guard for the
protection of the Revenue, the arrangements made
when the Coast Guard was transferred to the control of
the Admiralty might now be considerably modified. A
large proportion of the coast of the United Kingdom is
still patrolled nightly by the Coast Guard as a precaution
against smuggling, but looking to the increase in popula-
tion and the number of towns and villages round the
coasts, the development of telegraphic communication,
and the great reduction in the inducements to smuggling,
this service seems to be no longer required ; and some
other adequate arrangement for the protection of the
Revenue might be made by a small addition to the
present Customs Force, assisted by the local Police, in
addition to the watch still kept at those Coast Guard
Stations which would be maintained as Naval Signal
Stations.
Even in the cases in which the existing Coast Guard
may be considered to afford valuable protection to the
JONAH'S GOURD
Revenue, it must be remembered that in case of War
or for Great Manoeuvres, the men would be withdrawn
to the Fleet from all stations except the Naval War
Signal Stations.
In any case the employment of highly-trained seamen
to perform simple police duties on shore cannot be
justified, and the expense is much greater than it would
be were a civilian force to be employed.
Certain other duties, principally in connection with
life-saving and wrecks, under the Board of Trade, have
also been undertaken by the Coast Guard ; but these,
however valuable, do not constitute a raison d'etre for
the Coast Guard, and it is quite feasible to make adequate
local arrangements for carrying out these services, should
the Coast Guard be removed. No more striking illus-
tration of the feasibility of this can be given than the
National Lifeboat Organisation, and to that body, aided
perhaps by a Government grant, these services could,
no doubt, be easily, economically, and efficiently trans-
ferred.
Owing to the growing naval armaments of other
Nations, and the consequent necessary increase in the
Navy, the Admiralty has found it necessary carefully to
consider the whole question of the expenditure under
the Naval Votes in order to eliminate therefrom any
services which are unnecessary from the point of view
of immediate readiness and efficiency for war. About
£1,000,000 of the Naval Votes is diverted to services
which only indirectly concern the Navy, and are not
material to the fighting efficiency of the Service. Of
123
RECORDS
this about half (^£500,000) is annually absorbed by the
Coast Guard.
From a Naval point of view the greater part of this
heavy annual expenditure is wholly unnecessary, and it
is also very doubtful, from what has been before pointed
out, whether for Revenue purposes a force such as the
Coast Guard is now required ; while if it be still required
in certain localities, it would be more economical to
replace the present expensive Naval detachments by a
CiviUan service. By such a transfer the whole of the
present expense of training men as a fighting force
would be saved and there would be no deterioration in an
important part of the Naval active personnel such as is
now inevitable.
There can be no comparison between the cost of a
Revenue force and that of a Naval force, the cost of
Naval training, which is very considerable, being dis-
pensed with in the former case. Therefore, there is no
doubt that, from the point of efficiency and economy,
the substitution of civilians for Naval ratings would be
a great saving to the State.
Observatories.
21st August, 1906.
In the past Greenwich Observatory has been of great
importance to the Navy, inasmuch as all the data neces-
sary for the navigation of ships by astronomical observa-
tion have been compiled there. The testing of chrono-
meters has been carried out at Greenwich since their
invention in 1763, while the Cape Observatory was
124
JONAH'S GOURD
instituted in 1820 in order to supply data concerning
Southern stars not visible from Greenwich.
In recent years, however, the familiarity with Ocean
routes that has been attained ; the greatly extended area
of coast surveys, and the admirable system of lights and
beacons established throughout the navigational zones
of the world, have in the course of years caused the work
of the Observatories to become of less importance to
practical navigation, and more a matter of scientific
research. The photographic mapping of the heavens,
by which stars invisible to the naked eye are discovered,
is not a necessity to navigation, nor to the Naval Service.
At the present time, therefore, it may be said that the
only work done by the Observatories which is directly
useful to the Navy, is the testing and storing of chrono-
meters ; observing the astronomical changes connected
with the heavenly bodies for the purpose of obtaining
data for the correction of the Nautical Almanack ; sup-
plying accurate time for time signals and meridian distance
work, and taking magnetic observations.
This sphere of usefulness is not of advantage to the
Navy alone. The Mercantile Marine derives equal
benefit from the work of the Observatories. Greenwich
time is indispensable to Railway Companies to enable
them to work their complicated systems with accuracy,
and it is equally indispensable to the Postal Authorities
for the proper working of every post and telegraph office
in the Kingdom. Although the staff of the Observa-
tories is very largely occupied upon services of this public
character, neither the Board of Trade, nor Lloyd's, nor
125
RECORDS
the various Mercantile Shipping Associations, nor the
Railway Companies, nor the General Post Office, have
made any contribution towards their cost, while, on the
other hand, in one case, that of the Post Office, the Ad-
miralty is charged with a heavy annual payment for
postal and telegraphic communications. The London
Water Companies are greatly assisted by the Greenwich
rainfall observations, but they pay nothing for them,
neither do they supply the Admiralty with water gratuit-
ously.
It is fitting that the British Empire should possess a
National Observatory, but it is not equitable that Naval
funds should bear the whole expense.
When criticism is directed against the magnitude of
the Navy Estimates, it rarely happens that the critic
takes the trouble to ascertain of what Items the Votes
are made up ; on the other hand, money voted for the
Royal Observatories is passed by the House without much
question, because it happens to form part of Estimates
which are of such great magnitude.
The present procedure tends therefore to obscure the
actual sum total of the Navy Estimates, and at the same
time it prevents the application to the Royal Observa-
tories of the same Parliamentary criticism which is
applied to the Civil Service Estimates.
126
CHAPTER IX
NAVAL PROBLEMS
[The three privately printed volumes entitled " Naval Necessi-
ties," 1904, 1905, and 1906, contain papers written or collected
by Sir John Fisher, as Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth and as
First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, bearing upon the Naval Reforms
which he then introduced or contemplated. The following selec-
tions from these papers tell their own story.]
Sir John Fisher to Lord Selhorney First Lord of
the Admiralty,
Dear Lord Selborne, . . .
You remember you glanced through some manuscript
in my office at Portsmouth the day you embarked in
" Enchantress," and I gathered that you saw much in
them that commended itself to you. Well ! having
thus more or less got a favourable opinion from you,
I elaborated that manuscript which you had read, and
printed it with my confidential printer ; . . . then I
gave it secretly to the five best brains in the Navy below
the rank of Admiral to thresh out ; and associated two
other brains for the consideration of the types of future
fighting vessels ; then I selected out of those seven brains
the one with the most facile pen and . . . said to
him : *' Write a calm and dispassionate precis for me to
give the First Lord." You may be confident (as confident
as I know you are) that the First Sea Lord won*t ever
sell you ! that these seven brains may be absolutely
127
RECORDS
relied upon for secrecy. I have tested each of them for
many years !
These are the seven brains : Jackson, F.R.S., Jellicoe,
C.B., Bacon, D.S.O., Madden, M.V.O., Wilfred Hender-
son (who has all the signs of the Zodiac after his name !),
associated with Gard, M.V.O., Chief Constructor of
Portsmouth Dockyard, and who splendidly kept the
Mediterranean Fleet efficient for three years, and Gracie,
the best Marine Engineer in the world !
This is the " modus operandi " I suggest to you. If
these proposals in their rough outline commend them-
selves to you and our colleagues on the Board, then let
me have these seven, assisted by Mr. Boar (who is a
mole in the Accountant- General's Department — ^you
know of him only by upheavals of facts and figures !),
and secretly these eight will get out a detailed statement
supported by facts and figures for consideration before
we take a step further ! . . .
Please now just a few words of explanation at the
possibly apparent (but in no ways real) slight put on
those at the Admiralty who might be thought the right
persons to conduct these detailed inquiries instead of
the eight brains I've mentioned !
In the first place, any such heavy extraneous work
(such as is here involved) means an utter dislocation of
the current work of the Admiralty if carried out by the
regular Admiralty staff ! and as any such extraneous
work must of necessity give place to any very pressing
current work, then the extraneous work doesn't get done
properly — so both suffer ! — But further ! these seven
other spirits (not more wicked than any of those at the
Admiralty!) will be absolutely untrammelled by any
remarks of their own in the official records in the
Admiralty, and will not be cognisant (and so not in-
fluenced !) by the past written official minutes of the
High and Mighty Ones, and so we shall get the directness
and unfettered candour that we desire ! (Parenthesis : —
128
WK
Sir John Fisher and Sir Colin Keppel (Captain of the Royal Yacht).
NAVAL PROBLEMS
A most distinguished man at the War Office used to
think he had gained his point and blasted the Admiralty
by collecting extracts 20 years old with opposing decisions I
absolutely regardless that what is right to-day may be
wrong to-morrow ! but he traded on what we all dislike
— the charge of inconsistency I — Why ! the two most
inconsistent men who ever lived, the two greatest men
who ever lived and the two most successful men who
ever lived, were Nelson and Napoleon !)
Nelson most rightly said that no sailor could ever be
such a born ass as to attack forts with ships {he was
absolutely right), and then he went straight at them at
Copenhagen. Napoleon said, " Uaiidace, Vaudace,
toujour s Vaudace ! " and then he went and temporised
at Warsaw for three solid weeks (was it a Polish
Countess ?), and so got ruined at Moscow in conse-
quence of this delay.
Circumstances alter cases I That's the answer to the
charge of inconsistency. So please let us have this
excellent and unparalleled small working Committee to
thresh out all these details (when the general outlines
have been considered), but this very special point will no
doubt be borne in mind : — " Until you have these details
how can you say you approve of the outline ? '* So
what has to be said finally is that if the facts and figures
corroborate what is sketched out, then the proposals can
be considered for adoption, so the ultimate result is this ; —
" Let the Committee get on at once."
J. A. Fisher.
19/10/04.
Main Principles of Scheme.
Future Types of Fighting Vessels.
Four classes only of fighting vessels.
Uniform armament (except torpedo attack guns) in all
classes of fighting vessels.
129 K
RECORDS
Inviolate watertight bulkheads.
Subdivision of magazines.
Protection of magazines.
Abolish Ram.
No guns on main deck (so splendid light and airy
accommodation for officers, and crew, with huge square
ports and magnificent deck space).
Reduction of all weights and scantlings.
*' Out of Date " Fighting Ships.
Removal as soon as possible of all '' out of date "
ships (that is, ships unfit for fighting).
To abolish gradually the employment of all slow vessels
below I St Class Armoured Cruisers.
To substitute efficient fighting vessels with nucleus
crews for all the stationary obsolete vessels now in
commission, and also for all the training vessels and all
the Coastguard Cruisers.
Revision of Stations,
South Atlantic, West Indies, and Cape to form a
squadron under chief command of the Admiral of the
Cape Station, who will be a Vice-Admiral in the future
with three Rear- Admirals under him.^
The Commander-in-Chief in China to have the chief
command and strategic handling of the squadrons in
China, Australia, East Indies, and Pacific. He can be
a full Admiral with two Vice-Admirals and two Rear-
^ There are two alternative schemes which may possibly be preferred
to this.
130
NAVAL PROBLEMS
Admirals under him. The object is to employ Flag
Officers as much as possible at sea.
Effective Cruisers to be substituted for the present
varying types of vessels forming all these squadrons.
Personnel,
Reduction in entry of Boys, and increase of entry of
Non-continuous Service Men and of " Northampton "
lads.
Introduction of new system of Reserve (long service
tempered by short service !)
Nucleus Crews.
Two-yearly commissions to be instituted, and with no
material change of officers and men during the two
years.
All the fighting vessels in Reserve to have an efficient
nucleus crew of approximately two-fifths of the full
crew, together with all important Gunnery ratings as
well as the Captain of the ship and the principal Officers.
The periodical exercise and inspection of the ships by
the responsible Flag Officer who will take them to the
war.
This Flag Officer will suffer for any want of efficiency
and preparation for war of these vessels. These vessels
to be collected in squadrons at Portsmouth, Plymouth,
and Chatham, according to the Station to which they are
going as the reinforcements.
131 K 2
RECORDS
Signals.
Revision of our methods of Signalling to be based on
the class of Signals that will be used in war.
To abolish all systems and all Signals that are only of
use in peace time.
The Signal and Exercise Books of the Fleet to be
ruthlessly revised and cut down with this in view.
The present establishment of Signalmen on board
all vessels to be reduced to the numbers. that are necessary
in war (present system of superabundance of Signalmen
embarked in Flagships criminally wrong).
Defence of Naval Ports,
Modern conditions necessitate certain floating defences
requiring seamen to manipulate them. Soldiers appar-
ently can't do it !
Divided control of defence of Naval Ports impossible
between Navy and Army.
Admiralty must have sole responsibility that all our
Naval Arsenals are kept open for egress and ingress of
our Fleet in war.
Local defences should, therefore, apparently be under
the Naval Commander-in-Chief.
But all these arrangements for any such transfer of
responsibility from War Office to Admiralty must be so
planned as to obviate all possibility of Fleet men being
used for shore work in war, and there must he no risk of
lessening the sea experience of the officers and men of the
Fleet ; hence it will be imperative that there should be
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NAVAL PROBLEMS
an entire transference of the whole of the Garrison
Artillery from Army to Navy, as well as the responsibility
for all ordnance.
All this involves so immense an addition to the
responsibilities of the Admiralty, apart from the one chief
function of the Navy of seeking out and fighting the
enemy's fleets, that we have to hesitate ; but we can't let
matters go on as at present.
Notes by Sir John Fisher on New Proposals.
Organisation for War.
" // the Trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall
prepare himself to the battle ? "
(St. Paul, I Corinthians, xiv. 8.)
The object of the following remarks is to make clear
what has now to be done to organise and prepare for war.
What are the two great essentials ?
/. The Sufficiency of Strength and the Fighting Efficiency
of the Fleet.
II. Absolute Instant Readiness for War.
To get these two essentials an immense deal is involved !
It is believed they can both be got with a great reduction
in the Navy Estimates !
This reduction, combined with an undeniable increase
in the fighting efficiency of the Navy, involves great
changes and depends absolutely on one condition : —
The Scheme herein shadowed forth must be adopted as a
whole !
Simply because all portions of it are absolutely essential
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— and it is all so interlaced that any tampering will be
fatal !
The country will acclaim it ! the income-tax payer
will worship it ! the Navy will growl at it ! (they always
do growl at first !)
But we shall he Thirty per cent, more fit to fight and we
shall he ready for instant war !
and in time when we get rid of our redundancies in
useless ships and unnecessary men it will probably be
30 per cent, cheaper !
The outline of the various proposals will first be given.
No one single point must he taken as more important than
another. Each is part of a whole ; As St. Paul well
observes in the xii. Chapter of the I Corinthians : —
" The eye cannot say unto the hand^ I have no need of thee :
nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay,
much more those members of the body, which seem to he
more feeble, are necessary.''^
So is it of this scheme ! All its parts are essential for
the perfection we must have if England is to remain
the " Mistress of the Seas " !
The British Nation floats on the British Navy ! So
we must have no doubt whatever about its fighting
supremacy and its instant readiness for war ! To
ensure this and at the same time to effect the economy
which the finances of the country render imperative there
must be drastic changes ! To carry these out we must
have the three R*s ! We must be Ruthless, Relentless,
Remorseless ! We must tell interested people whose
interests are going to be ignored that what the Articles
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NAVAL PROBLEMS
of War have said since the time of Queen Elizabeth is
truer than ever !
** It is the Navy whereon under the good providence of
God, the wealth, peace, and safety of this country doth
chiefly depend / "
If the Navy is not supreme, no Army however large
is of the slightest use. It's not invasion we have to fear
if our Navy is beaten,
Ifs Starvation !
What's the good of an army if it has got an empty
belly ? In Mr. John Morley's famous and splendid
words at Manchester on November 8th, 1893: "Everybody
knows. Liberals as well as Tories, that it is indispensable
that we should have not only a powerful Navy, but I may
say, an all-powerful Navy." And when we have that —
then History may repeat itself, and Mahan's glorious
words will be applicable in some other great national
crisis I the finest words and the truest words in the
English language !
" Nelson's far-distant, storm-beaten ships, upon which
the Grand Army never looked, stood between it and the
dominion of the worlds — (Mahan, Vol. II., page 118.)
And the Navy must always so stand ! Supreme —
unbeaten ! So we must have no tinkering ! No pander-
ing to sentiment ! No regard for susceptibilities ! No
pity for anyone ! We must be Ruthless, Relentless, and
Remorseless ! And we must therefore have The Scheme |
The Whole Scheme ! ! And Nothing But The Scheme ! ! !
Just let us take one instance as an illustration of a
mighty reform (lots more will follow later, but the sledge
135
RECORDS
hammer comes in handy here !). During the 12 months
ending June 30th, 1904 (this last month !) the ships of
the Home Fleet, the Channel Fleet, and the Cruiser
Squadron were in Portsmouth Dockyard for over 30 per
cent, of the year ! Disorganised and unfit for sea !
See what this means ! A battleship costs over j£ 100,000
a year for its up-keep, irrespective of repairs, but it*s
not the money waste ! it*s the efficiency waste I
Every day those Fleets and Squadrons are not together ^
they are deteriorating !
It is only human nature that when in Portsmouth
Dockyard, from the Admiral downwards, all are hankering
after their homes ! and somehow or other they get
there ! the fictions are endless and ingenious, and extend
from " the cradle to the grave ! " From an unexpected
confinement to the serious illness of an aged relative I
(nearly always a grandmother 1 and the baby is always
the first one !)
What is the remedy ?
It's Nelsonic — and so simple !
^ Nelson could not leave Toulon with all his Fleet for
nearly four months out of the year ! No ! he stayed
there for two years without putting his foot on shore I
What he did was to send one or two ships away at a time
to get provisions and water, and to effect any needed
repairs. Let us do the same ! We want a fixed base
for each Fleet (and so fixed for war reasons). Thus, for
example, the Channel Fleet at Gibraltar, the Home
Fleet at Bantry, or the Forth, and so on. But this is
going into unnecessary detail, and anticipating other
136
NAVAL PROBLEMS
parts of the scheme which must be adopted to make this
work ! Thus it will be seen later on, that to enable this
great economy in money to be effected (putting aside
increase of fighting efficiency /), we must have two years'
commissions ! But we can't have two years' commis-
sions unless we have fewer ships in commission ! But
we can't have fewer ships in commission unless we have
a redistribution of our Fleet 1 But we can't have a
redistribution of our Fleet until we rearrange our
strategy ! and this strategy, strange to say, depends on
our reserves, and our reserves depend on a fresh allocation
of our personnel, and on a fresh system of service. We
must have the new scheme of Long Service tempered by
Short Service ! And this again largely hangs on the
types of fighting ships we are going to have ! But what
is the type of ship ? Not one that goes to the bottom in
two minutes from the effect of one torpedo, and drowns
nearly a thousand men, and takes three years to replace,
and costs over a million sterling ! How many types do
we want I This is quite easy to answer if we make up
our minds how we are going to fight I Who has made up
his mind ? How many of our Admirals have got minds ?
It will be obvious then that the whole of this business
is a regular case of " the house that Jack built," for one
thing follows on another, they are all interlaced and inter-
dependent I That's why it was said to begin with : — •
The Scheme! The Whole Scheme!! And Nothing
but the Scheme ! ! !
One essential feature which has been overlooked
must be mentioned before going further because impera-
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RECORDS
lively necessary to ensure instant readiness for war, but it
hangs on all the other points previously mentioned and
which are going to be examined in detail.
The reduction in the number of ships in commission
which is as necessary for fighting efficiency (when the whole
Navy is mobilised for war) as it is conducive to an immense
economy must he accompanied by and associated with two
vital requisites :
I. Every fighting ship in reserve must have a nucleus
crew.
II. The reinforcements for the fighting fleets and
squadrons must be collected together while in the reserve
at the most convenient ports and be placed under the
Flag Officer who will take them to their war stations,
and this Flag Officer to understand he will be shot like
a dog in case of any inefficiency in these ships in war.
Unless this is carried out the great strategic scheme
in contemplation could not be entertained nor could the
number of ships in commission be reduced as is absolutely
essential for the efficiency of those in reserve, not on the
score of economy at all, but the reduction of ships in com-
mission is imperative for the fighting efficiency of the whole
fleet when mobilised.
So we thus get one more illustration of the inter-
dependence of all portions of the scheme and beg again
to refer to St. Paul as previously quoted.
It is convenient here to mention that the paucity of
efficient Admirals is a most serious matter, and will
probably compel the manufacture of Commodores or of
Acting Admirals under a resuscitated Order-in-Council.
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NAVAL PROBLEMS
The least capable in the respective ranks of the Navy are
the Admirals. It's not their own fault solely, they have
had no education, and this blot will continue till we have
a Naval War College established at Portsmouth, and Flag
Officers and Captains, hoping for employment, can
practically prove their capacity by manoeuvring two fleets
of destroyers against each other. This will be much
cheaper and less risky to the Empire than their man-
oeuvring with the big ships. Experiments on the scale of
12 inches to a foot are not economical !
Mr. Childers was our Attila ! He was the " scourge "
of the Navy in many ways, but most of all by his dis-
astrous and frightfully costly retirement schemes. The
secret of efficiency lies in large lists of Officers ! You have
then a large field of selection, and a great flow of promo-
tion, and also no Officer considers it a stigma to be
passed over in company with forty others, and so not to
pose as a solitary monument of ineptitude as he appears
at present to himself and his friends when passed over
with the present small lists of Flag Officers.
Also ** Selection by non-employment " goes so easily
with large lists (and with large lists is accepted as a
necessity, and not resented as a personal affront !).
Purging the Navy of Obsolete Vessels.
Out of 193 ships at present in commission (not counting
destroyers) organised in fleets, 63 only are of such calibre
as not to cause an Admiral grave concern if allowed to
wander from the protection of larger ships. There are
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among these several ships which should be paid off as
soon as possible, being absolutely of no fighting value.
And there are, further, several ships having trained
naval crews doing the work usually performed by small
merchant tramps. Further still, there are in our Home
Ports many ships taking up valuable berthing space,
requiring maintenance and repair, which never under any
circumstances whatever would be used in war time.
The above useless vessels being in commission means
awful waste of money.
Every ship that has defects taken in hand, and which
would not be of use in war, is a waste of money to the
country.
Of course objections will be raised, and it will be
shown that the Navy cannot be run without them, but
wipe them out, and in a year no one will remember that
they ever existed.
It is well to review generally our distant stations and
the composition of their squadrons.
The Navy and the country have grown so accustomed
to the territorial nomenclature of our distant squadrons
that their connection with the sea is considerably ob-
scured, and their association with certain lands has led
to a tacit belief that those particular squadrons are for
the protection of the lands they frequent, and not
generally for the destruction of the enemy's fleet wherever
it may happen to be. Of course no such idea is accepted
by the Admiralty, but, in spite of the broad principles
of strategy involved, certain fleets are composed largely
with a view to work in restricted waters, which vessels
140
NAVAL PROBLEMS
would be a source of danger and weakness on the sudden
outbreak of war with a combination of Powers.
Take the combination of ships on each of the following
stations : North America, Cape of Good Hope, East
Indies, and Australia. Remember the '* Variag." What
happened in the small area of the theatre of operations
in the present war will be repeated in the larger theatre
of operations of a conflict of European Powers when the
whole world will be involved. What will happen to
our " Odins," " Redbreasts," '* Fantomes," " Dwarfs,"
etc. ? aye ! and what will happen to our " Scyllas,"
" Katoombas," and " Hyacinths," if caught sight of by
first class cruisers of modern armament on foreign
stations ?^ Lucky if they can reach a neutral port,
disarm, and have their crews interned for the remainder
of the war. Lucky, indeed, if a far worse fate does not
befall them. At all events, such wholesale scattering of
the British foreign fleets would lead to irreparable loss
of prestige among the smaller States where these little
vessels were usually located.
Now is there any necessity for such numbers of
useless fighting ships ? Cannot more efficient classes
be substituted for them, or, at all events, some of
them ?
What we have to face is the probability of a serious
combination of strong Powers against us, for then we
will be unable to spare two first class cruisers to go in
search of individual enemy's first class cruisers, who, if
1 The "Pegasus" was massacred at Zanzibar by the Germans 1 —
F. 1919.
RECORDS
not caught, may sweep round and lick up or force into
neutral ports all our inefficient small fry.
Surely the three Atlantic squadrons should be of such
strength as to be able to rendezvous and form a fleet
more or less absolutely self-protective, to say nothing of
being oflfensive. Such a squadron, under one admiral
in war time, would be an effective Atlantic squadron,
and would protect our interests by holding the ocean
against enemy's cruisers.
Such squadrons can be formed without increasing the
personnel of the Navy, and, moreover, the crews would
be in ships that would be used in war instead of being
in " floating anxieties."
Now for the present, sufficient cruisers, first class, do
not exist to meet the requirements of supplying ships
to take the place of smaller obsolete ones, and also for
reserve purposes.
For the present a large proportion of cruisers, second
class, must be retained, but it is hoped that these will
in time be replaced by cruisers, first class, in the propor-
tion of one cruiser, first class, to three cruisers, second
or third class. No one can argue that one first class
cruiser is not a superior fighting unit to three cruisers
second or third class. Also one defect list instead of
three I
If it should be insisted on that certain ports require
certain small vessels, then they should be earmarked for
that purpose, and only such places be recognised which
larger vessels cannot frequent, such as the rivers on the
West Coast of Africa (our territory), shallow rivers in
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NAVAL PROBLEMS
China where no question of neutrality can arise, or special
places of this nature. It should be overwhelmingly
proved to the satisfaction of the Admiralty that essential
conditions necessitate the presence of useless fighting
ships before they relax their efforts to have such useless
ships removed.
It should be accepted as a principle that the great
aim and object of the Admiralty is to have nothing
floating on the waters except the four fundamental
types of fighting vessels, and that (for the present) lack
of ships of the necessary classes prevents this being
realised, but that as the delivery of ships takes place,
'he substitution will automatically follow.
The Foreign Office will in time be bound to recognise
the real efficiency of the scheme, even if a consul is
robbed of the shadow of support of a gunboat under his
window, but has the substantial strength of a first class
cruiser substituted at the end of a telegraph wire.
The danger that is eternally present to the Navy is
over confidence in our preparedness for war.
The chief cause of unpreparedness for war is want
of appreciation of the cumulative effect of daily small
changes in our ships and armament on the whole question
of strategy and shipbuilding.
Changes have slipped so gradually from wooden
sailing ships through slow steam iron vessels to our
present splendid ships of war that the tendency has
always been to subordinate our strategy to our ship
construction, rather than to mould our war ship design
to suit our strategy.
143
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Strategy should govern the types of ships to be designed.
Ship design^ as dictated by strategy^ should govern
tactics.
Tactics should govern details of armaments.
In approaching the important question of ship design
the first essential is to divest our minds totally of the
idea that a single type of ship as now built is necessary,
or even advisable, then to consider the strategic use of
each different class, especially weighing the antagon-
istic attributes of nominally similar classes in the old
wars.
To commence with the battleship.
The sole reason for the existence of the old line of
battleship was that that ship was the only vessel that
could not be destroyed except by a vessel of equal class.
This meant that a country possessing the largest number
of best equipped battleships could lay them alongside
the enemy, or off the ports where the enemy were.
Transports with the escort of a few battleships could
then proceed to make oversea conquests. Squadrons
of battleships or cruisers escorting the convoy of merchant
ships and keeping the line of communications open. In
each case the battleship, being able to protect everything
it had under its wing from any smaller vessel, was the
ultimate naval strength of the country. Then it was
that, by means of the battleship only, was the command
of the sea gained and held. Let us he quite clear on the
mattery it was solely from the fact that the battleship was
unassailable by any vessel except a battleship that made
the command of the sea by battleships a possibility !
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NAVAL PROBLEMS
Hence battleships came to symbolise naval sea strength
and supremacy. For. this reason battleships have been
built through every change of construction and material,
although by degrees other vessels not battleships have
arisen which can attack and destroy them.
Here therefore there is good ground for inquiry
whether the naval supremacy of a country can any
longer be assessed by its battleships. To build battle-
ships merely to fight enemy's battleships, so long as
cheaper craft can destroy them, and prevent them of
themselves protecting sea operations, is merely to breed
Kilkenny cats unable to catch rats or mice. For fighting
purposes they would be excellent, but for gaining prac-
tical results they would be useless.
This at once forces a consideration as to how a battle-
ship differs from an armoured cruiser. Fundamentally
the battleship sacrifices speed for a superior armament
and protective armour. It is this superiority of speed
that enables an enemy's ships to be overhauled or evaded
that constitutes the real difference between the two.
At the present moment naval experience is not sufficiently
ripe to abolish totally the building of battleships so long as
other countries do not do so.
But it is evidently an absolute necessity in future con-
struction to make the speed of the battleship approach
as nearly as possible that of the armoured cruiser.
Next consider the case of the armoured cruiser.
In the old days the frigate was the cruiser, she was
unarmoured, that is, her sides were so much thinner
than those of the battleship that she was not able to
145 L
RECORDS
fight in the line of battle, but the weak gun fire of those
days permitted close scouting by such unprotected vessels,
she could approach a battleship squadron very closely
without fear of damage, she could sail round a fleet and
count their numbers without danger to herself, unless
chased off by other frigates, she was a scout and a
commerce destroyer. Similarly with present day ar-
moured cruisers, they can force their way up to within
sight of a fleet, and observe them, unless chased off by
other armoured cruisers, but to do this they have to be
given a certain amount of protective armour.
The range of eyesight has remained constant, that of
gunfire has increased. Speed is a necessity to ensure
safety, armour protection to ensure vision.
It is evident, from the above considerations, that the
functions of the frigate have devolved on the armoured
cruiser to a greater extent than have the functions of
the line of battleship devolved on the modern battleship.
But how about the unarmoured cruisers and those of
low speed }
With loss of protection a cruiser loses her power of
reasonable approach for observation purposes, and if to
this be added a loss of reasonable speed her safety is
gone. Cruisers without high speed and protection are
entirely and absolutely useless.
Every vessel that has not high scouting speed, or the
highest defensive and offensive powers, is useless for
fighting purposes.
This is true of every class of vessel between the first
class armoured cruiser and the fast torpedo vessel.
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NAVAL PROBLEMS
Nucleus Crews.
It is impossible to exaggerate the vital importance to
the nation of having all the reserve ships absolutely
ready for instant war.
Our reserve ships, as they are now, are not, and cannot
be made really efficient fighting units under several
months of commission. There is no doubt that great
strides towards rapid mobilisation have been made of
late years, but merely to hustle a complement of the
required ratings into a ship, is not to make her a really
efficient fighting machine.
The keystone of our preparedness for war has now to he
inserted^ namely^ the provision of efficient nucleus crews.
This can he done to-morrow.
A nucleus crew should consist of approximately
two-fifths of her engine-room complement, the whole of
her turret crews, gun layers and sight-setters for all
guns, all important special ratings, and two-fifths of her
normal crew, her captain, and all important officers.
The ship can proceed half-yearly, or quarterly, as
may be required, to sea with her fighting ship's company
to carry out firing exercises, or to work under the Admiral
or Commodore who will command her and her consorts
in war, and be as nearly perfectly efficient as any ship,
not always at sea, can be.
No more men above our present requirements need
be entered, training in gunnery and torpedo schools
need not be interfered with, and a saving of money to
the taxpayer effected.
147 L 2
RECORDS
Subsidiary Services of War.
We are now busily engaged in perfecting each and all
of these subsidiary services ; but they are not yet perfect.
In some important respects we are as yet far from it
(Rome was not built in a day !), but we now emphasise
the fact in order that matters may be pushed on by all
concerned, from the Prime Minister downwards, with
the utmost energy and vigour !
The items are not taken in the order of their relative
importance, but for convenience of argument.
There is the service of all the auxiliary vessels of the
Fleet for supplying coal, ammunition, stores, provisions,
water, materials for repairs, &c., and also the multitudes
of fast mercantile vessels we require as Scouts ; and there
is also the nature of the employment of the armed
mercantile cruisers to be settled. All these points have
been carefully considered in the past, but in all and
every one of them there is that most deadly of all deadly
drawbacks to fighting readiness, the leaving certain
things to be dealt with " when the time comes ^ The
time will come like the Day of Judgment ! There won't
be time for doing anything, not even for repentance !
We must go to the very utmost limit of preparedness,
not one little item must be left to be dealt with " when
the time comes." We want all these vessels, without
any exception whatever, to be as ready for a sudden
emergency as is now the main Fighting Fleet ! So there-
fore, day by day, we must know by name each vessel
for every service, and the orders for every captain of
148
NAVAL PROBLEMS
every single one of this multitude of mercantile auxiliaries
must be prepared, and he (each several captain) must
thoroughly understand these orders beforehand ; they
must be explained to him by " one who knows," and
when that captain leaves England for his next trade voyage
(and his ship is therefore no longer available), then the
operation must be repeated with the captain of the
substituted vessel ! It must be laid down where every
ship is to load, what route she is to follow, what even-
tualities she has to guard against ! All, and together ^
must he detailed and day by day kept perfect !
Again, who are the officers at every port superintending
the imparting of this information every day of the year,
to the daily fresh captains of daily fresh ships, replacing
others daily, going on their usual trade voyages ? Who
is the Flag Officer in supreme charge of all these super-
intending Port Officers ? What are the names of the
retired Commissioned or Warrant Officers who may be
allocated to take passage in all the more important
auxiliary vessels ? such, for instance, and above all, as
the Ammunition and Repair ships, so as to ensure the
proper control and distribution of the cargo, as well as
the efficient and prompt action of the ship herself, to
be at the right place at the right time. Every Comman-
der-in-Chief must know in minute detail every particular
about every one of these vessels that are coming to him.
He must know it now. He must know it day by day I
He must have his own agent at home to look after his
interests and to be responsible to him (the Conmiander-
in-Chief) for the completeness of all the^^arrangements,
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RECORDS
— if not complete, then this agent must report the
Superintending Port Officers for their incompetency.
All this scheme above sketched out may involve
immense labour and great expense, hut it has got to he
done ! Not a bit of use having the Fleet at all, if you
don't feed it, and also feed it well !
Quite as a separate service, apart from all that has
been mentioned above, is the dissemination of intelli-
gence and its suppression.
We must not (as has been hitherto accepted)
permit the splendid costly fighting vessels of the Fleet
to be criminally wasted by being sent here and there as
messengers ! Fast unarmoured mercantile steamers must
constitute the squadrons of the Sea Intelligence Depart-
ment, and instead of our Admirals running after informa-
tion with costly armoured cruisers, we must run after
the Admirals with the information, with easily obtainable
cheap (because non-fighting), fast mercantile vessels.
All this is but a brief review of what is in progress,
and what has to be done, but there remains above all
that daily consideration at the Admiralty, and by every
Admiral in command, of what would have to be done
that very day in case of war, with the most unexpected,
as well as the most expected opponent !
A Retrospect (July, 1906).
The most striking fact to an outsider is the astonishing
confidence and loyalty of the Navy in its rulers which
has been exhibited during he last two years of relentless
reorganisation.
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NAVAL PROBLEMS
Naval Officers, as a class, are conservative and dislike
change, and as a rule are prepared to resist it. The
manner in which the recent changes have been received,
root and branch and sweeping as they were, shows, as
nothing else can, the necessity for reforms. Compare
the insignificant agitation (which has, however, now
entirely collapsed), in the Navy over the vast and drastic
reforms of the last two years with the agitation in the
Army over the trifling matter of getting rid of two bat-
talions of Guards !
So let us be grateful — adequately grateful — ^to the
officers and men of the Navy for their splendid loyalty
during the introduction of reforms, some of which have
hit them very hard, notably the sudden bringing home
and paying off of the large number of vessels that were
wiped out of the Navy as not being up to the required
standard of fighting efficiency. And there was also the
redistribution of the Fleet, which deprived many officers
of advantageous appointments and seriously disturbed
domestic arrangements.
But the fact is that the Navy sees the fighting advan-
tages we have gained, and so has loyally responded to
the demands on its sense of duty.
As an excellent writer in the " North American Re-
view " for June so aptly ^presses it, the Navy saw that
it was steam-manship that was wanted, and so, as a
body, they welcomed the new scheme of training both
of officers and men. They saw also that to have every
vessel of the Navy, large and small, mobilised and
efficient to fight within three hours in the dead of night,
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RECORDS
as practically exemplified in the recent Grand Manoeuvres,
is a result which justifies all the drastic measures of the
Board of Admiralty.
The Navy also recognises the incomparable fighting
advantages of the new era in giving us an unparalleled
gunnery efficiency, as exemplified in the fact that before
that new era there were 2,000 more misses than hits in
the annual gunlayers' competition, while in the year
after there were 2,000 more hits than misses ! In the
new order the best ship is the one that can catch the
enemy soonest, and hit him hardest and oftenest ; under
the old system these considerations were certainly not
the primary ones.
The Navy sees also that, while the fighting efficiency of
the British Fleet and its instant readiness for war has
become a household word amongst the Admiralties of
the world, at the same time vast economies — ^to be
reckoned in many millions — have been eff^ected ; for
instance, our harbours, docks, and basins are ridded of
obsolete vessels and thus made adequate for the accom-
modation of our fighting fleet, for which there was no
room previously, and no less a sum than 13 millions
sterling was at one time contemplated as necessary to
give the required accommodation. The whole of that
13 millions in proposed works has been cancelled.
Nor have the officers and men been forgotten. The
men have had a quarter of a million sterling practically
added to their pay ; one item alone is ^75,000 a year
for increase of pensions to petty officers, and another
j(^47,ooo a year in giving them their food allowance when
152
NAVAL PROBLEMS
on leave, and other similar and just concessions make up
the balance. Further improvements in the position of
the lower deck are now under consideration and will
shortly be ready for announcement, i.e.y Ratings Com-
mittee.
The officers, again, no longer pay for the bands out
of their own pockets, and the system of Nucleus Crews
gives them an amount of Home Service combined with
sea-time, with all its domestic advantages, beyond
anything ever before obtaining in the Navy.
Again, it is recognised by all but a few misguided 1
misanthropes that the new shipbuilding policy is a mag-
nificent departure in fighting policy. We ask the officers
who are going to fight^ what they want^ and we build
thereto. Formerly vessels were simply belated improve-
ments on their predecessors. Admirals had to make
the best use they could of the heterogeneous assemblage
of vessels which the idiosyncrasies of talented designers
and Controllers of the Navy had saddled us with, to the
embarrassment of those whose business it was to use
them in battle, and to the bitter bewilderment of types
in the brain of the Board of Admiralty ! Theory was
entirely divorced from practice, with the lamentable
result that when the two were recently brought together,
and the " Dreadnought " was evolved, it was found
that the whole Navy had practically become obsolete !
** First catch your hare " is the recipe in Mrs. Glasse's
Cookery Book for ** jugged hare," and so speed has
been put in the forefront in every class of vessel from
battleship to submarine, and as it's no use having the
153
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speed without the wherewithal to demoUsh the enemy,
the armament of our new ships, as so fully exemplified
in the " Dreadnought," has received such a development
that that vessel is equal to any two and a half battleships
at present existing.
The efficacy of the Nucleus Crew system has also
been obvious to the whole Fleet in the unprecedented
exemptions from machinery defects, and the unexampled
gunnery efficiency, coupled with a saving of about
50 per cent, in repairs of ships, which incidentally has
led in a large measure to the reduction of 6,000 Dockyard
workmen. And it must never be forgotten that every
penny not spent in a fighting ship or on a fighting man is a
penny taken away from the day of battle !
The management of the Royal Dockyards has now
been placed on a much sounder footing, more akin to
the organisation in similar commercial establishments,
where any undue extravagance or unnecessary executive
machinery means loss of money to the shareholders,
and is visited by pains and penalties on the officials
directly responsible. At the same time the desirable
possibilities of ready expansion in war time to suit the
varying requirements of a purely naval repairing and
building estabHshment have been maintained.
The Navy also sees the great strategic advantages of
our Fleets exercising where they are likely to fight.
As Nelson said, " The battle ground should be the drill
ground y
The placid waters and lovely weather of the Mediter-
ranean do not fit our seamen for the fogs and gales of
154
NAVAL PROBLEMS
the North Sea, or accustom them to the rigours of a
northern winter, when the icicles hang down over the
bed or the hammock of the Torpedo Boat Commander
and his men, as in the North Sea last winter when we
sent 147 Torpedo Craft suddenly to exercise at sea ; and
though sent on a full power trial of many hours, on first
being mobilised, not a single defect or breakdown was
experienced. Since that date the arrangements for the
Torpedo Craft have been still further perfected, and now
the Destroyers are all organised according to the strategic
requirements of the situation of the moment, and are
definitely detailed in flotillas and divisions, with their
store and repair ships and reserves, according to the
approved modern methods of torpedo warfare as exempli-
fied in the Russo-Japanese War.
The Navy also sees and welcomes the untold advantage
given by the Nucleus Crew system of instant war
readiness, as exemplified when last July all our vessels,
large and small, in reserve went to sea unnoticed by the
Press and engaged in fighting Manoeuvres in the Channel
with 200 pendants under the chief command of the
Admiral of the Channel Fleet.
No calling out of Reserves or such disorganisation as
was incidental to the old system, when the crews of
ships in commission had to be broken up to leaven the
ships of the^Reserve that then had no crews at all.
155
CHAPTER X
NAVAL EDUCATION
I. — Common Entry.
{Written in 1905).
On the 25th of December, 1902, the new system of
entry and training of officers for the Navy was
inaugurated.
The fundamental principles of this great reform are : —
(a) The common entry and training of officers of the
three principal branches of the Service, viz.,
Combatant or Executive, Engineer, and Marine.
(b) The practical amalgamation of these three branches
of officers.
(c) The recognition of the fact that the existence of
the Navy depends on machinery, and that,
therefore, all combatant officers must be
Engineers.
(d) The adoption of the principle that the general
education and training of all these officers
must be completed before they go to sea,
instead of, as heretofore, dragging on in a
perfunctory manner during their service as
midshipmen, to be finally completed by a
short ** cram " at Greenwich and Portsmouth.
156
NAVAL EDUCATION
When the details of the new scheme were published,
it was stated that at about the age of 20 these officers,
who up till then had all received an identical training,
would be appropriated by selection to the three branches,
viz., Executive, Marine, or Engineer ; however, this is
unlikely to be carried out in its entirety, and when the
time comes, the march of progress will have prepared
us to recognise that differentiation to this extent is
unnecessary, and that the Fleet will be officered by the
combatant officer, who will be equally an Executive,
Marine, or Engineer Officer.
Let us assume this to be true. In spite of the great
revolution that has been brought about since Christmas,
1902, in the Navy, and the consequent awakening and
development of the minds of all officers, there is not one
in one hundred who realises fully what the effects of
this great reform will be.
The Cadets who are at present at Osborne College
are being educated primarily as Mechanical Engineers
concurrently with the special training necessary to make
them good seamen, good navigators, and good com-
manders. The most important training they have to
receive is undoubtedly that of the Mechanical Engineer,
which will ultimately make them capable of dealing with
and handling anything of a mechanical nature. In
process of learning this they acquire a mathematical
training of a very high order, and, as pure mathematics
are the same all the world over, the various other subjects
which the Naval Officer of the future will be required
to be proficient in only necessitate a little training in the
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special application of the mathematics of which they
possess a firm grasp. Navigation and nautical astronomy
are simplicity exemplified once the student has learned
trigonometry and algebra. Gunnery, torpedo, and elec-
tricity are simply special cases of mechanical problems.
Modern seamanship is practically nothing else but a
practical application of simple mechanical " chestnuts.*'
What, therefore, is the meaning of it all ?
It means that the Naval Officer of the future will
regard machinery, mechanical work, and mechanical
problems as his ** bread and butter." He will think no
more of handling machinery of any sort than the ordinary
mortal does of riding a bicycle ; guns, gun-mountings,
torpedoes, and electrical instruments and machines he
will regard as special types, but differing no whit in
principle from the primitive stock. Mystery will dis-
appear. At present it is an unfortunate thing that
departmental jealousy leads the members of each and
every department of the Service to make a mystery of
their particular speciality. The Gunnery Lieutenant,
Torpedo Lieutenant, Engineer, and Marine Officer each
resent discussion by " outsiders " of any point in con-
nection with their speciality, as a piece of unwarrantable
presumption, with the result that each knows all about
his own job, and pursues it diligently, taking care not to
poach on anybody else's preserves, but without any
regard as to whether the Service might not gain in
efficiency by a little more co-operation and collaboration.
From one point of view they are right in being
exclusive, because they know that no one else knows
158
NAVAL EDUCATION
anything about their work, and therefore discussion
with *' outsiders " is mere waste of breath, but in future
all this will be changed. Specialities will disappear ;
the Naval Officer of the future will see no greater differ-
ence between a gun-mounting and a torpedo, than an
Engineer sees between the main engines and the feed
pump.
However, although specialities will disappear, it will
always be necessary to have " experts " in each depart-
ment. We shall still require our Lieutenants G., T.,
and E. ; but as at the present time when a Lieutenant G.
is promoted to Commander he drops the G., so also it
seems logical to conclude that the future Lieutenant E.
on promotion to Commander should drop the E.
It is absolutely safe to predict that the Naval Officer
of 50 years hence will smile when he reads that his
forefathers had to have an officer of Commander's rank
appointed to a ship solely for charge of the main engines.
Foreigners gasp when they hear that Lieutenants of two
or three years standing command our destroyers ; in
other navies destroyers are usually commanded by
Captains de Corvette ; and then we smile when we
remember youngsters like Lieutenant Rombulow-Pearse
of the " Sturgeon," who rescued the crew of the sinking
*' Decoy " in a gale of wind, with only his small whaler
to help him, and with the loss of only one man, who
disappeared nobody knows how.
The ideal complement of officers of the future there-
fore will be : i Captain, i Commander, i Lieutenant G.,
I Lieutenant E., i Lieutenant T., i Lieutenant M.,
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RECORDS
I Lieutenant N., i Lieutenant P., and as many other
watchkeepers as necessary.
Enough has been said in the meantime to show how
completely the new system of entry and training of
officers has remodelled the British Navy, and it is with
the object of using the case of the officers as an argument
in considering the case of the men, that it has been dilated
on at such length.
State Education in the Navy.
{This Paper was prepared in 1902 under great obligations
to Mr. J. R. Thursfield.)
Everyone must now feel that the new system of Entry
and Education of Naval Officers must have a fair trial,
and all reasonable people will hold that it deserves one.
There still remains to be faced an argument which
is certain to appeal to democratic sentiment. Broadly
stated, it is this — ^that the new system, as at present
organised, must of necessity take all officers of the Navy
from among the sons of parents who can afford to spend
about £120 a year on their sons from the age of 12J
until they become Lieutenants at the age of about 20,
or even over. In other words, the officers of the Navy
will be drawn exclusively from the well-to-do classes.
Democratic sentiment will wreck the present system
in the long run, if it is not given an outlet. But let us
take the far higher ground of efficiency : is it wise or
expedient to take our Nelsons from so narrow a class ?
Surely some small percentage of promising and intelli-
gent boys from the other classes could be secured and
160
WMlaiMHMlldlliMHMHMi
" The Dauntless Three," Portsmouth, 1903.
Sir John Fisher, Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth.
Viscount Esher, President of the Committee of War Ofl&ce
Reconstruction.
Sir George Sydenham Clarke, late Governor of Victoria.
NAVAL EDUCATION
(if caught early enough, as is now the case) trained to be
officers and gentlemen by the time they are grown up.
Nor is it the money barrier alone which excludes
them. An exclusive system of nomination is distasteful,
if not alien, to the democratic sentiment. Combined
with the cost of the subsequent training, our present
system absolutely excludes all but a very small fraction
of the population from serving the King as naval officers.
It admits the duke's son if he is fit, but it excludes the
cook's son whether he is fit or not. It ought to admit
both, but only if both are fit. The cook's son may not
often be fit, but when he is, why exclude him ? Brains,
character, and manners are not the exclusive endowment
of those whose parents can afford to spend ^i ,000 on their
education.
There seems to be only one way of solving this problem.
Initial fitness must be secured, as at present, by careful
selection at the outset, and if the promise is not fulfilled
as time goes on, ruthless exclusion, whether of duke's
son or of cook's son, must be the inflexible rule. But
do not exclude for poverty alone, either at the outset or
afterwards. Let every fit boy have his chance, irrespec-
tive of the depth of his parents' purse. This might, of
course, be done by a liberal system of reduced fees for
cadets, midshipmen, and sub-lieutenants whose parents
were in poor circumstances. But in the first place
there would be a certain element of invidiousness in the
selection of the recipients of the national bounty, and,
in the second, mischievous class distinctions would
inevitably arise among the cadets themselves — between
161 M
RECORDS
those who were supported wholly or partially by the
State and those who were not. It is most essential that
there should be no such distinctions — that the cadets
should be taught to look up only to those who are eminent
in brains, character, and manners, and to look down only
on those who are idle, vicious, vulgar, or incorrigibly
stupid. Now, a common maintenance by the State
would put them all on a common level of equality.
Though the additional cost to the State would doubtless
be great, the result would be well worth the extra
expenditure.
The quarter of a million sterling required would be
lost and unnoticeable in the millions of the Education
Vote, yet it would be worth all the millions of the Educa-
tion Vote if it makes the Navy more efficient, because
The British Nation Floats on the British Navy.
It would put the Navy once for all on a basis as broad as
the nation ; it would immeasurably widen the area of
selection, and place at the disposal of the Admiralty all
the intellect and all the character of all classes of the
people.
The New Naval Education.
Masts and sails disappeared irretrievably with the
demand for high speed.
Now, what went with them ? Why ! The education
that the sole use of sail power gave to the eye, brain, and
body, in battling with the elements !
It was a marvellous education which we had in the
pure sailing days !
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NAVAL EDUCATION
One was alert by instinct ! You never knew what
might happen ! A topsail-sheet carrying away, or a
weather brace going, or a sudden shift of wind, or
squall !
One thus got habituated to being quick and resourceful,
and it was more or less a slur and a stigma not to be so !
Also (as Officer of the Watch) men^s lives were in your
hands ! For instance with men on the yards, and any
lubberly stupidity with braces or helm !
Both for Officers and Men then we no longer have this
magnificent education by the Elements !
Steam has practically annihilated the wind and the
sea !
What are we to do to get the same ready and resource-
ful qualities by other methods ?
The answer is : The Gymnasium, Boat Sailing, the
Destroyer, the Submarine, and the Engine Room.
Apparently, we are in this country in the infancy of
Gymnastics for the training of the body when one reads
of the Swedish system and its results. (" Mens sana in
corpore sano.'*)
The one solitary element in which we are behind,
and must be behind all nations, is " Men.'* We have no
Conscription with the unlimited resources it gives !
How should we counterbalance this want ? "By intro-
ducing every possible form of labour-saving appliance,"
regardless of cost, weight, and space ; for instance, is it
really impossible to devise mechanical arrangements for
feeding the fires with coal instead of using the mass of
men we now are obliged to employ for the purpose ?
163 M 2
RECORDS
The coal is got out of the bunkers in the same way now
as in the first steamship ever built. It is not only we
thereby save men — we ensure success (for the next
Naval War will be largely a question of physical endurance
and nerves).
*' A machine has no nerves and doesn*t tire ! "
The other point necessary to consider is " not to
waste educated labour, and to utilise and cultivate
specialities ! "
The present system of education both of Men and
Officers is that we all go in at one end like the pigs of
every type at Chicago, and come out a uniform pattern
of sausages at the other !
Thus, what we want is, above all things, a '* Corps
d'Elite '* of gun-firers ! I should call them the " Bull's
Eye Party " (and give them all los. a day extra pay !)
They must do nothing else but practise hitting the
target and lose their pay when they don't !
Where would your violin player be if he didn't daily
practise } And if you made him pick oakum, where
would his touch be ?
This is what Paganini said : " The first day I omit
to practise the violin I notice it myself !
** The second day my friends notice it ! !
" The third day the public notice it ! ! ! "
But if the " Bull's Eye Party " are to hit the enemy
as desired (and as they can be made competent to do !)
then the Admirals and Captains, and all others, must
equally play their parts to allow the *' Bull's Eye Party "
to get within range and sight of the enemy. Their
164
NAVAL EDUCATION
education is therefore equally important. Scripture
comes in here appropriately, ** The eye cannot say to the
hand, nor the hand to the foot,'* etc., etc.
To put the matter very briefly :
" The education of all our Officers, without distinction,
must be remodelled to cope with machinery, instead of
sails ! "
The Gymnasium, the Engine-room, the Destroyer,
the Submarine, and Boat Sailing must be our great
educational instruments.
Not for a single moment is it put forward that a year
in a workshop and a year in an engine-room will make
an efficient Engineer Officer ! It is long experience in
such work that does that ! — as in every other thing 1
But in a small way, the argument of the abolition of the
old Navigating Class applies here very forcibly. It was
said their abolition would be absolutely fatal to the
efficient navigation of the Fleet.
But what has been the result } There have been
fewer cases of bad navigation since the old Navigating
Class was done away with than in the whole history of
the Navy ! And with this immense gain — ^that the
knowledge of navigation is now widely diffused through
the Fleet.
One can suppose cases where it would be of the utmost
value to us were engineering knowledge and the handling
of mechanical appliances more widely diffused amongst
our Officers !
But that is not the vital point ! The vital point is
that were a Midshipman to be continuously serving in
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the engine-room of Destroyers and larger vessels (con-
tinuously under weigh) at high speeds, he would get a
training assimilating in its nature to that marvellous
training of the old sailing days, which kept the wits of
Officer of the Watch in the utmost state of tension, and
produced the splendid specimens of readiness and
resource which we read of in the sea Officers of Nelson's
time and later !
Training of Boys : No masts and sails — Gymnasium
— Rifle and gun practice — Boat sailing — Little or no
school. (No Binomial Theorem) — Destroyer work for
sea-sickness — Sent straight from training-ships to hot
foreign stations on the hot-house principle before
bedding-out — Select from the very beginning the good
shots and the smart signalmen and train them
specially.
Training of the Men : Re-model instruction in
Gunnery and Torpedo Schools — " Corps d*Elite " of
three classes of (i) gun firers or " Marksmen " ; (2) gun
loaders ; (3) gun manipulators — From the time the boy
enters the Navy in the training-ship till he gets his
pension, the sole object to be to select, train, and improve
and retain " the good shot,*' and all training sub-
ordinated to this !
Training of Officers : Return to early entry at 12
years of age — A much lower standard of entrance,
educational examination, and a high standard of physical
entrance examination— Colloquial French obligatory, no
grammar, and no other language, dead or alive I — A
combined course of ** Britannia " and ** Keyham "
166
NAVAL EDUCATION
Colleges with at least two years of engine-room and shop
work and Destroyer practice.
These great changes are not fanciful ideas !
The stubborn fact that we cannot provide what is
required on the present system forces the change both
as regards Officers as well as Men and Boys.
Naval Officers' Training.
Some Opinions on the Admiralty Scheme (1902).
I. Admiral Lord Charles Beresford.
In 1902 Lord Charles Beresford, in an interview on
the then recent Admiralty memorandum on the subject
of the entry, training, and employment of officers and
men of the Royal Navy, said : —
" The strongest opponent of the scheme will acknow-
ledge that it is a brilliant and statesmanlike effort to
grapple with a problem upon the sound settlement of which
depends the future efficiency of the British Navy. To-day
the commander of fleets must possess a greater com-
bination of characteristics than has ever before been
required of him. He must not only be a born leader of
men, but he must have the practical scientific training
which the development of mechanical invention renders
an absolute and indispensable essential. The executive
officer of to-day should possess an intimate knowledge
of all that relates to his profession. Up to now he has
been fairly educated in the different branches. The
most important, however — in that we depend entirely
upon it — ^that relating to steam and machinery, has been
sadly neglected. The duties of this branch have been
delegated to, and well and loyally performed by,[a^body
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RECORDS
of officers existing for this special purpose, and there
have been two resuhs. The executive officer has remained
ignorant of one of the most important parts ofhisprofession ;
the engineer officer has never received that recognition to
which the importance of his duties and responsibilities so
justly entitled him. The Board of Admiralty have now
unanimously approved a plan which provides that
naval officers shall have an opportunity of adding to their
professional attainments the essential knowledge of
marine engineering. Further than this, the Board have
recognised that the present status of naval engineer
officers could not continue, in fairness either to themselves
or to the Service. The abolition of distinction regarding
entry has settled this point once and for ever^ and it is
satisfactory to find that constituted authority has taken the
matter in hand before it became apolitical or party question.
*' There seems to be a doubt as to whether it will be
possible under the new scheme for an executive officer
to have the knowledge he should possess of marine
engineering. There is no cast-iron secret or mystery
with regard to marine engineering, as some seem to
imagine. This being so, there is no reason why lieu-
tenants (E.) should not be just as good and useful experts
in their speciality as the gunnery, torpedo, or navigating
lieutenant of the present day, without in the slightest
degree detracting from their ability to become excellent
executive officers. It is imperative that all officers of
the present day should be well acquainted with all the
general duties connected with the management of ships
and fleets. The wider and fuller the education the naval
officer receives in matters relating to science within his
own profession, the more likely the Service is to produce
men who will be capable of seeing that the fleet in its
entirety is perfect for its work, and that there is no weak
link in the chain that may jeopardise the whole.
" The memo, referring to the marines will be, I believe,
received with the greatest satisfaction by that splendid
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NAVAL EDUCATION
corps as a whole as by the Service as a whole. It is a
marvel that the zeal and ability of the officers of the Royal
Marines has not been effectively utilised long ago. Many
important positions will now be open to them, and
they will feel that they are taking a real part in the executive
working of the ship and fleet which is so proud to own them
as a component part. It is to be hoped the way will
now be open to give them appointments as general
officers commanding at many of the naval bases. No
part of the scheme will give the Service in its entirety
more sincere pleasure than the improvements promised
with regard to the position of the warrant officers.
Promotion of warrant officers to lieutenant's rank has
long been urged by those who argued that the lower
deck were fully entitled to a right that had from time
immemorial been engaged by the non-commissioned
ranks of the sister Service. Placing the signal ratings
on an equality with gunnery and torpedo ratings is of
far more importance than is generally realised. The
vital necessity of a good line of communication and good
signalmen has never been thoroughly appreciated.
'* I consider the return to the early age of entry of infinite
value. It has not yet been decided whether on first
going to sea midshipmen will be appointed to ships
ordinarily in commission or to ships specially in com-
mission for training purposes. I am strongly of opinion
that it would be by far the best plan to send them to
learn their duties in the ordinary ships of the regularly
commissioned fleet. With regard to the proposed
arrangement of nomination to branches, I consider it a
fair contract, and it keeps the power of appointment to
the various branches in the hands of the constituted
authorities. In my opinion this gives the best young
officer the fairest chance of holding the best positions.
" In conclusion, I am of the opinion that the plan is
one that has been thoroughly matured and well thought
out, and I believe that when its details have been definitely
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RECORDS
settled it will make more complete the well-being, content-
ment, and efficiency of that Service on which the safety
of the empire absolutely depends."
2. Sir John Hopkins.
I succeeded Admiral Sir John Hopkins, one of the
most distinguished Officers in the Navy, in seven
different appointments — as Head of the Gunnery School
at Portsmouth, as Director of Naval Ordnance at the
Admiralty, as Admiral Superintendent of Portsmouth
Dockyard, as Controller of the Navy, as 3rd Sea Lord,
as Commander-in-Chief in North America, and as
Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean. In each
of these appointments force of circumstances compelled
me to have a revolution. So the following spontaneous
letter, which he wrote me long after, is the more gratifying
and shows his magnanimity :
Greatbridge, Romsey,
16th April, 1906.
My Dear Fisher,
There is a small band of writing critics " making
mouths and ceasing not '* at the Education Scheme ; but
let them not trouble you. The wonder will be in twenty
years' time how such a bold forecast could have been
made, that produced such excellent results ; and, in my
opinion, the " Common Entry " man will be as great a
success as the best friends of the Service could wish.
Believe me,
Sincerely yours,
(Signed) J. O. Hopkins,
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NAVAL EDUCATION
3. Chief Inspector of Machinery, Sir Henry
Benbow, K.C.B., D.S.O., R.N.
Habeshi, Dorman's Park,
Surrey,
20th April, 1908,
Dear Sir,
Permit me to congratulate you on the success of the
new system of Entry and Education of Naval Cadets,
which has always elicited my warmest sympathy as the
only means of doing away with class prejudice. A
relative and namesake of mine, a Lieutenant in the
Service, only the other day spoke to me most highly of
the mental and physical development of the present-day
Cadets, and remarked how very favourably they compared
with the Cadets entered under the old regime.
I remain, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
Henry Benbow.
Admiral of the Fleet
Sir John Fisher, G.C.B., O.M.
A Naval Candidate's Essay.
I give here an essay written on 20th February, 1908,
by a candidate for entry at Osborne as a Naval Cadet.
His age was i2| ; his height four foot nothing. The
subjects were suddenly set to the candidates by the
Interview Committee, and they were allowed only ten
minutes to write the essay in. The original of this
essay I sent to King Edward.
What Nation ought we to protect ourselves most against
— and why ?
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*' In my opinion we should protect ourselves most
against Germany.
" The most important reason is that they have the
second largest Navy in the world ; to which (their Navy)
they are rapidly adding. They are also building three
ships equal to our * Dreadnought.' Their Army also
is very formidable ; though they are suffering from
flat-feet. It is also rumoured that the present German
Emperor has a feud against King Edward ; namely,
when they were young | King Edward punched the
German Emperor's head ; how far that is true, I don't
know.
" I always think that Englishmen and Germans are,
more or less, natural enemies. One of the reasons for
this is, I think, that Englishmen and Germans are so
different ; for most of the Germans I've met in Switzer-
land were not quarter so energetic as our English friends.
They (the Germans) would never go much above the
snow line. Also I think we rather despise the Germans,
because of their habit of eating a lot. The Germans
also would like a few of our possessions."
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CHAPTER XI
SUBMARINES
I BEGIN this chapter with a letter written to me on
April 1 8th, 1918, by Colonel Sir Maurice Hankey,
Secretary to the War Cabinet : —
My Dear Lord Fisher,
Last night I dined with Lord Esher. He showed me
letters of yours dated 1904 describing in detail the
German Submarine Campaign of 19 17. It is the most
amazing thing I have ever read ; not one letter only, but
several.
Also some astonishing remarks of yours about the
Generals who ought to man the War Office in case of
war. All men who have come to the top were your
nominees. Finally, General Plumer (whom few people
knew about) you picked out for Quartermaster- General,
with this remark : " Every vote against Plumer is a
vote for paper boots and insufficient shells ! "^
Priceless, the whole thing ! Neck-busy though I am,
I have come to the Office early to pay this tribute of my
undying admiration, and to beg you to get hold of these
astounding documents for your Memoirs. But anyhow,
they will appear in Lord Esher *s Memoirs, I suppose.
Yours ever,
(Signed) M. P. A. Hankey.
* For these predictions, see Letter to Lord Esher of (?) Jan., 1904
" Memories," p. 173.
RECORDS
Now follows a letter which I wrote to a High Official
in 1904, and which I had forgotten, until I came across
it recently. It's somewhat violent, but so true that I
insert it. I went as First Sea Lord of the Admiralty
shortly after — ^very unexpectedly — and so was able to
give effect (though surreptitiously) to my convictions.
Not only Admirals afloat, but even Politicians ashore,
dubbed submarines as " playthings," so the money had
to be got by subterfuge (as I have explained in Chapter V.
of my " Memories ").
Admiralty House,
Portsmouth.
April 20th, 1904.
My Dear Friend,
I will begin with the last thing in your letter, which
is far the most important, and that is our paucity of
submarines. I consider it the most serious thing at
present affecting the British Empire ! — That sounds Mg^
but it's true. Had either the Russians or the Japanese
had submarines the whole face of their war would have
been changed for both sides. It really makes me laugh
to read of " Admiral Togo's eighth attack on Port
Arthur ! " Why ! had he possessed submarines it would
have been one attack and one attack only I It would
have been all over with the whole Russian Fleet, caught
like rats in a trap ! Similarly, the Japanese Admiral
Togo outside would never have dared to let his transports
full of troops pursue the even tenor of their way to
Chemulpo and elsewhere !
It's astounding to me, perfectly astounding^ how the
very best amongst us absolutely fail to realise the vast
impending revolution in naval warfare and naval strategy
174
SUBMARINES
that the submarine will accomplish ! (I have written a
paper on this, but it's so violent I am keeping it I)
Here, just to take a simple instance, is the battleship
** Empress of India," engaged in manoeuvres and knowing
of the proximity of Submarines, the Flagship of the
Second Admiral of the Home Fleet nine miles beyond
the Nab Light (out in the open sea), so self-confident of
safety and so oblivious of the possibilities of modern
warfare that the Admiral is smoking his cigarette, the
Captain is calmly seeing defaulters down on the half-
deck, no one caring an iota for what is going on, and
suddenly they see a Whitehead torpedo miss their stern
by a few feet ! And how fired ? From a submarine of
the " pre-Adamite " period, small, slow, badly fitted,
with no periscope at all — it had been carried away by a
destroyer lying over her, fishing for her 1 — ^and yet
this submarine followed that battleship for a solid two
hours under water, coming up gingerly about a mile
off, every now and then (like a beaver !), just to take a
fresh compass bearing of her prey, and then down
again i
Remember, that this is done (and I want specially to
emphasise the point), with the Lieutenant in command
of the boat out in her for the first time in his life on his
own account, and half the crew never out before either !
why, it's wonderful ! And so what results may we expect
with bigger and faster boats and periscopes more power-
ful than the naked eye (such as the latest pattern one I
saw the other day), and with experienced officers and
crews, and with nests of these submarines acting to-
gether ?
I have not disguised my opinion in season and out
of season as to the essential, imperative, immediate, vital,
pressing, urgent (I can't think of any more adjectives !)
necessity for more submarines at once, at the very least
25 in addition to those now ordered and building, and a
hundred more as soon as practicable, or we shall be
175
\
RECORDS
caught with our breeches down just as the Russians have
been I
And then, my dear Friend, you have the astounding
audacity to say to me, " I presume you only think they
(the submarines) can act on the defensive !".... Why,
my dear fellow ! not take the offensive ? Good Lord I
if our Admiral is worth his salt, he will tow his
submarines at i8 knots speed and put them into the
hostile Port (like ferrets after the rabbits !) before war
is officially declared, just as the Japanese acted before
the Russian Naval Officers knew that war was declared !
In all seriousness I don*t think it is even faintly
realised —
The immense impending revolution which the submarines
will effect as offensive weapons of war.
When you calmly sit down and work out what will
happen in the narrow waters of the Channel and the
Mediterranean — how totally the submarines will alter
the effect of Gibraltar, Port Said, Lemnos, and Malta,
it makes one's hair stand on end !
I hope you don't think this letter too personal !
Ever yours,
J. A. Fisher.
Note made on January 5th, 1904 :
Satan disguised as an Aiigel of Light wouldn't succeed
in persuading the Admiralty or the Navy that in the
course of some few years Submarines will prevent any
Fleet remaining at sea continuously either in the Medi-
terranean or the English Channel.
Now follows a paper on " The Effect of Submarine
Boats," which I wrote while I was Commander-in-Chief
at Portsmouth, October, 1903.
These remarks can only he fully appreciated by those who
witnessed the Flotilla of Submarine Boats now at Ports-
mouth practising out in the open sea.
176
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SUBMARINES
p It is an historical fact that the British Navy stubbornly
resists change.
A First Sea Lord told me on one occasion that there
were no torpedoes when he came to sea, and^he didn't
see why the devil there should be any of the beastly
things now !
This was a propos of my attracting the attention of his
serene and contented mind to the fact that we hadn't got
any torpedoes at that time in the British Navy, and that
a certain Mr. Whitehead (with wiiom I was acquainted)
had devised an automobile torpedo, costing only £500,
that would make a hole as big as his Lordship's carriage
(then standing at the door) in the bottom of the strongest
and biggest ship in the world, and she would go to the
bottom in about five minutes.
Thirty-five years after this last interview, on Sep-
tember 4th, 1903, at II a.m., the ironclad *' Belleisle,"
having had several extra bottoms put on her and strength-
ened in every conceivable manner that science could
suggest or money accomplish, was sent to the bottom of
Portsmouth Harbour by this very Whitehead automobile
torpedo in seven minutes.
This Whitehead torpedo can be carried with facility
in Submarine Boats, and it has now attained such a range
and such accuracy (due to the marvellous adaptation of
the gyroscope), that even at two miles' range it possesses
a greater ratio of power of vitally injuring a ship in the
line of battle than does the most accurate gun. This
is capable of easy demonstration (if anyone doubts it).
There is this inmiense fundamental difference be-
tween the automobile torpedo and the gun — the torpedo
has no trajectory : it travels horizontally and hits below
water, so all its hits are vital hits ; but not so the gun —
only in a few places are gun hits vital, and those places
are armoured. It is not feasible to armour the bottoms
of ships even if it were effectual — which it is not.
But the pith and marrow of the whole matter lies in
177 N
RECORDS
the fact that the Submarine Boat which carries this
automobile torpedo is up to the present date absolutely
unattackable. When you see Battleships or Cruisers,
or Destroyers, or Torpedo Boats on the horizon, you can
send others after them to attack them or drive them
away ! You see them — ^you can fire at them — ^you can
avoid them — you can chase I them — but with the Sub-
marine Boat you can do nothing I You can't fight them
with other Submarine Boats — ^they can't see each
other !
Now for the practical bearing of all this, and the special
manner it affects the Submarine Boat and the Army and
the Navy — for they are all inextricably mixed up together
in this matter : —
As regards the Navy, it must revolutionise Naval
Tactics for this simple reason— that the present battle
formation of ships in a single line presents a target of
such a length that the chances are altogether in favour of
the Whitehead torpedo hitting some ship in the line even
when projected from a distance of several miles. This
applies specially to its use by the Submarine Boat ; but
in addition, these boats can, in operating defensively,
come with absolute invisibility within a few hundred
yards to discharge the projectile, not at random amongst
the crowd of vessels but with certainty at the Admiral's
ship for instance, or at any other specific vessel desired
to be sent to the bottom.
It affects the Army, because, imagine even one Sub-
marine Boat with a flock of transports in sight loaded
each with some two or three thousand troops ! Imagine
the effect of one such transport going to the bottom in a
few seconds with its living freight !
Even the bare thought makes invasion impossible !
Fancy 100,000 helpless, huddled up troops afloat in
frightened transports with these invisible demons known
to be near.
Death near — momentarily — sudden — awful —
178
SUBMARINES
invisible — unavoidable 1 Nothing conceivable more
demoralising !
It affects the existence of the Empire, because just as
we were in peril by the non-adoption of the breech-
loading gun until after every Foreign nation had it, and
just as we were in peril when Napoleon the Third built
*' La Gloire " and other French ironclads, while we were
still stubbornly building wooden three-deckers, and
just as we were in peril when, before the Boer War, we
were waiting to perfect our ammunition and in conse-
quence had practically no ammunition at all, so are we
in peril now by only having 20 per cent, of our very
minimum requirements in Submarine Boats, because
we are waiting for perfection ! We forget that " half a
loaf is better than no bread " — ^we strain at the gnat of
perfection and swallow the camel of unreadiness I We
shall be found unready once too often !
In 19 1 8 I wrote the following letter to a friend on
** Submarines and Oil Fuel."
You ask for information in regard to a prophecy I
made before the War in relation to Submarines, because,
you say, that my statement made in 19 12 that Submarines
would utterly change Naval Warfare is now making a
stir. However, I made that same statement in 1904,
fourteen years ago.
I will endeavour to give you a brief, but succinct,
synopsis of the whole matter. I have to go some way
back, but as you quite correctly surmise the culmination
of my beliefs since 1902 was the paper on Submarine
Warfare which I prepared six months before the
War.i ....
In May, 1912 (I am working backwards), Mr. Asquith,
the Prime Minister, and Mr. Churchill, First Lord of the
Admiralty, came to Naples, where I then was, and I was
1 See below, p. 181.
179 N 2
RECORDS
invited to be Chairman of a Royal Commission on Oil
Fuel for the Navy, and on Oil Engines. What most
moved me to acceptance was to push the Submarine,
because oil and the oil engine had a special bearing on
its development.
Continuing my march backwards in regard to the
Submarine, there was a cessation in the development of
the Submarine after I left the Admiralty as First Sea
Lord on January 25th, 19 10. When I returned as First
Sea Lord to the Admiralty in October, 19 14, there were
fewer Submarines than when I left the Admiralty in
January, 19 10, and the one man incomparably fitted to
develop the Submarine had been cast away in a third-
class Cruiser stationed in Crete. No wonder ! An
Admiral, holding a very high appointment afloat, derided
Submarines as playthings !
In one set of manoeuvres the young officer command-
ing a Submarine, having for the third time successfully
torpedoed the hostile Admiral's Flagship, humbly said
so to the Admiral by signal, and suggested the Flagship
going out of action. The answer he got back by signal
from the Admiral was : " You be damned ! "
I am still going on tracing back the Submarine. In
1907, King Edward went on board the " Dreadnought "
for a cruise and witnessed the manoeuvres of a Submarine
Flotilla. I then said to His Majesty : " The Submarine
will be the Battleship of the future ! "
In February, 1904, Admiral Count Montecuccoli, the
Austrian Minister of Marine, invited himself to stay with
me at Portsmouth, where I was then Commander-in-
Chief. He had been Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian
Navy at Pola when I was Commander-in-Chief in the
Mediterranean. We became very great friends out there.
The Austrian Fleet gave us a most cordial reception.
He also was an ardent believer in the Submarine. That's
why he invited himself to stay, but I refused to let him
see our Submarines at Portsmouth, which were then
180
SUBMARINES
advancing by leaps and bounds. Admiral Bacon was
then the admirable Captain in charge of Submarines,
and he did more to develop the Submarine than anyone
living. The Submarine is not the weapon of the weak.
Had it only been properly used and developed, it's the
weapon of the strong, if you use your Naval Supremacy
properly, and
seize the exits of the enemy y and make a blockade effectual
by Submarines and Mines , which our predominant and
overwhelming naval superiority renders feasible.
All that was required to meet a German Submarine
Menace was the possession of Antwerp, the Belgian
Coast, and the Baltic. We could quite easily have
accomplished these- three objects.
Nearly three months before the War, before the
meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defence held on
May 14th, 1 9 14, I sent the Prime Minister the following
Memorandum which I had written in the previous
January ; and added : —
The Submarine is the Coming Type of War Vessel
FOR Sea Fighting.
But for that consummation to be reached we must
perfect the oil engine and we must store oil.
There is a strong animus against the submarine — of
course there is !
An ancient Admiralty Board minute described the
introduction of the steam engine as fatal to England's
Navy.
Another Admiralty Board minute vetoed iron ships,
because iron sinks and wood floats !
The whole Navy objected to breech-loading guns, and
in consequence sure disaster was close to us for years
and years.
181
RECORDS
There was virulent opposition to the water-tube boiler
(fancy putting the fire where the water ought to be, and
the water where the fire should be !)
The turbine was said by eminent marine engineers to
have an " insuperable and vital defect which renders it
inadmissible as a practical marine engine — its vast number
of blades — it is only a toy." 80 per cent, of the steam-
power of the world is now driving turbines.
Wireless was voted damnable by all the armchair
sailors when we put it on the roof of the Admiralty,
and yet we heard what one ship (the " Argyll ") at
Bombay was saying to another (the " Black Prince ") at
Gibraltar.
*' Flying machines are a physical impossibility," said
a very great scientist four years ago. To-day they are as
plentiful as sparrows.
" Submarines are only playthings ! " was the official
remark of our Chief Admiral afloat only a little while ago,
and yet now submarines are talked of as presently ousting
Dreadnoughts.
The above texts, extracted from comparatively modern
naval history (history is a record of exploded ideas !),
should make anyone chary of ridiculing the writer when
he repeats :
THE SUBMARINE IS THE COMING TYPE OF
WAR VESSEL FOR SEA FIGHTING.
And what is it that the coming of the submarine really
means ? It means that the whole foundation of our
traditional naval strategy, which served us so well in the
past, has been broken down I The foundation of that
strategy was blockade. The Fleet did not exist merely
to win battles — ^that was the means, not the end. The
ultimate purpose of the Fleet was to make blockade
possible for us and impossible for our enemy. Where
that situation was set up we could do what we liked with
him on the sea, and, despite a state of war, England grew
steadily richer. But with the advent of the long-range
182
SUBMARINES
ocean-going submarine that has all gone 1 Surface ships
can no longer either maintain or prevent blockade, and
with the conception of blockade are broken up all the
consequences, direct and indirect, that used to flow from
it. All our old ideas of strategy are simmering in the
melting pot ! Can we get anything out of it which will
let us know where we are and restore to us something of
our former grip ? It is a question that must be faced.
Sea-fighting of to-day, or at any time, entails the
removal of the enemy's sea forces. If, as is maintained,
the submarine proves itself at once the most efficient
factor for this purpose and also the most difficult sea
force to remove, let us clear our minds of all previous
obsessions and acknowledge the facts once and for all.
Hostile Submarines.
It has to he freely acknowledged that at the present time
no means exist of preventing hostile submarines emerging
from their own ports and cruising more or less at will.
It is, moreover, only barely possible that, in the future,
mining and other blocking operations on a very extensive
scale may so develop as to render their exit very hazar-
dous ; but it is plain that such operations would require
a large personnel, unceasing energy and vigilance, and
an immense quantity of constantly replaceable materials.
qp •«■ TP W •If ip
The Submarine and Commerce.
Again, the question arises as to what a submarine can
do against a merchant ship when she has found her. She
cannot capture the merchant ship ; she has no spare
hands to put a prize crew on board ; little or nothing
would be gained by disabling her engines or propeller ;
X83
RECORDS
she cannot convoy her into harbour ; and, in fact, it is
impossible for the submarine to deal with commerce in
the light and provisions of accepted international law.
Under these circumstances, is it presumed that the
hostile submarine will disregard such law and sink
any vessel heading for a British commercial port
and certainly those that are armed or carrying contra-
band ?
There is nothing else the submarine can do except
sink her capture, and it must therefore be admitted that
(provided it is done, and however inhuman and barbarous
it may appear) this submarine menace is a truly terrible
one for British commerce and Great Britain alike, for no
means can be suggested at present of meeting it except
by reprisals. All that would be known would be that a
certain ship and her crew had disappeared, or some of
her boats would be picked up with a few survivors to
tell the tale. Such a tale would fill the world with horror,
and it is freely acknowledged to be an altogether bar-
barous method of warfare ; but, again, if it is done by
the Germans the only thing would be to make reprisals.
The essence of war is violence, and moderation in war is
imbecility.
It has been suggested that it should be obligatory for
a submarine to fire a warning gun, but is such a proceed-
ing practical ? We must bear in mind that modern
submarines are faster on the surface than the majority of
merchantmen, and will not necessarily need to dive at
all. Therefore, as the submarine would in most cases be
sighted, and as she has no prize crew to put on board,
the warning^gun is useless, as the only thing the sub-
marine could do would be to sink the enemy ; also, the
apparently harmless merchant vessel may be armed, in
which case the submarine may but have given herself
away if she did not sink her.
The subject is, indeed, one that bristles with great
difficulties, and it is highly desirable that the conduct of
184
SUBMARINES
submarines in molesting commerce should be thoroughly
considered. Above all, it is one of overwhelming interest
to neutrals. One flag is very much like another seen
against the light through a periscope, should he have
thought it necessary to dive ; and the fear is natural that
the only thing the officer of the hostile submarine would
make sure of would be that the flag seen was not that of
his own country.
Moreover, under numerous circumstances can a
submarine allow a merchant ship to pass unmolested ?
Harmless trader in appearance, in reality she may be one
of the numerous fleet auxiliaries, a mine-layer, or carrying
troops, and so on. Can the submarine come to the
surface to inquire and lose all chance of attack if the
vessel should prove to be faster than she is ? The
apparent merchant ship may also be armed. In this
light, indeed, the recent arming of our British merchant-
men is unfortunate, for it gives the hostile submarine an
excellent excuse (ijF she needs one) for sinking them ;
namely, that of self-defence against the guns of the
merchant ship.
What can be the answer to all the foregoing but that
(barbarous and inhuman as, we again repeat, it may
appear), if the submarine is used at all against commerce,
she must sink her captures ?
For the prevention of submarines preying on our
commerce, it is above all necessary that merchant shipping
should take every advantage of our favourable geograph-
ical position, and that we should make the Straits of
Dover as difficult as we possibly can.
It is not proposed here to enter into the technical
details, of such arrangements ; but even after every
conceivable means has been taken, it must be con-
ceded that there is at least a chance of submarines
passing safely through ; while at night, or in thick
weather, it is probable that they would not fail to pass
in safety.
185
RECORDS
I conclude with some details of British Submarines
before and during the War : —
I. When I left the Admiralty in January, 1910 :
Submarines ready for fighting 61
Building and on order 13
II. When I returned to the Admiralty, in October,
1 9 14, as First Sea Lord :
Submarines fit for fighting 53
Building and on order 21
But of these 21, only 5 were any good !
2 were paid off as useless.
3 sold to the Italians, not of use to us.
4 sold to the French, not of use to us.
7 of unsatisfactory design.
16 leaving only 5 of oversea modern (" E ") Type.
Nominally, there were 77 Submarines when I returned
in October, 19 14, but out of these 24 were useless,
or had gone to the Antipodes, as follows :
2 to Australia.
3 to Hong Kong.
I sold to Italy useless.
8 *' A " Class scrapped, 10 years old.
10 ** B *' Class scrapped, 9 years old.
24
77 — 24 = 53 total Submarines fit for Service when I
returned in October, 19 14.
There were 61 Submarines efficient when I left the
Admiralty in January, 19 10.
Of those that were on order when I returned, 14 were
186
SUBMARINES
of " G " Class, but were of an experimental type, and so
were not ready till Juney 191 6, or one year after the
Submarines were ready which I ordered on my return
to the Admiralty in October, 19 14.
Here may be stated the great service rendered by Mr.
Schwab, of the Bethlehem Steel Works. I specially sent
for him. I told him the ^very shortest time hitherto
that a Submarine had been built in was 14 months.
Would he use his best endeavours to deliver in six
months ? He delivered the first hatch in five months !
And not only that, but they were of so efficient a
type (" H " Class) that they came from America to the
Dardanelles without escort, and were of inestimable
service out there, and passed into the Sea of Marmora,
and were most effective in sinking Turkish Transports
bringing munitions to Gallipoli.
The type of Submarine (" H " Class) he built hold
the field for their special attributes. I saw one in dock at
Harwich that had been rammed by a Destroyer — I think
a German Destroyer — and had the forepart of her taken
clean away, and she got back to Harwich by herself
all right. The Commander of her, an aged man,
was in the Merchant Service. (What a lot we do indeed
owe to the Merchant Service, and especially to those
wonderful men in the Trawlers I)
But Mr. Schwab did far more than what I have narrated
above. He undertook the delivery of a very important
portion of the armament of the Monitors.
The idea was followed up in making old Cruisers
immune from German Submarines — the ** Grafton," an
187
RECORDS
old type Cruiser (and so also the " Edgar "), thus fitted,
was hit fair amidships by a torpedo from a German
submarine off Gibraltar, and the Captain of the
" Grafton " reported himself unhurt and going all the
faster for it (as it had blown off a good bit of the hull !),
and those vessels were ever so much the better sea boats
for it !
It is lamentable that no heed was given to the great
sagacity of Mr. Churchill in his special endeavour to give
further application to this invention.
In the Submarine Monitor Mi, which carries a
1 2-inch gun, and which is illustrated in this volume, we
have the type of vessel I put before the Admiralty in
August, 1 9 15. She is the forerunner of the Battleship
of the future ; but her successors should be built in a
much shorter time than she was.
188
CHAPTER XII
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
How War and Peaceful Commerce will he Revolutionised
by the Oil Engine.
On September 17th, 1912, at 3 a.m., I invited two very
eminent experts, Sir Trevor Dawson and his coadjutor
McKechnie, to leave their beds and come into my room
to see an outHne of the Fast Ship of the Future, both
for War and Commerce, carrying sufficient fuel to go
round the Earth with and with an increased capacity of
30 per cent, as compared with similar vessels of the
same displacement using steam. At length a special
Government Research Department has been set up to
develop the Oil Engine, and a sum prohibitive in peace
time has been cheerfully accorded by War reasoning to
set up this establishment on a big basis. I reiterate
what is said elsewhere, that the Oil Engine will revo-
lutionise both War and Commerce when once it is per-
fected — ^through the enormous gain it affords in space
and smaller crews through riddance of stokeholds and
firemen, and facility of re-fuelling and cleanliness and
absence of funnels, etc., etc.
189
RECORDS
Here is a descriptive outline of H.M.S. " Incom-
parable," as set forth in the early morning of September
17th, 1912 :
Really a Gem ! She can be riddled and gutted outside
the Central Diamond-shaped Armoured Citadel because
nothing vital outside that Citadel ! So lightly built
she'll weigh so little as to go Fast, with a hundred and
fifty thousand horse power ! She'll shake to pieces in
about 10 years ! What's the good of a warship lasting
longer ? The d — d things get obsolete in about a
year !
Ten 16-inch guns to begin with (afterwards 20-inch
guns) for main armament.
Eight broadside Torpedo Tubes (21 -inch Torpedo).
32 knots speed at least.
16-inch armour on citadel and belt amidships, thinning
towards the end.
850 feet long — ^to be afterwards i ,000 feet ; 86 feet wide.
Four Torpedo Tubes each side to be well before the
Citadel (submerged Tubes) so as not to interfere with
machinery space.
Quadruple screws.
Anti- Submarine guns in small single turrets.
A Turtle-backed armoured hull, with light steel
uninflammable structure before and abaft the armoured
Diamond-shaped Citadel.
Two Conning Towers.
Hydraulic crane each side (very low in height) for
lifting boats.
The light central steel hollow mast only for wireless
190
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
and for ventilation, made of steel ribbon to wind up and
down at will.
Jam up the Citadel all that is possible right in centre
of Hull, and squeeze the last inch in space so as to lessen
amount of 1 6-inch armour. ^
Curved thick armour deck.
Ammunition service by Hydraulic power.
Oil right fore and aft the whole ship. Enough to go
round the earth !
Very high double bottom — honeycombed.
Coffer dams everywhere stuffed with cork.
This, then, is the Fast Battle Cruiser " Incomparable "
of 32 knots speed and 20-inch guns and no funnels, and
phenomenal light draught of water, because so very long
and built so flimsy that she won't last 10 years, but that's
long enough for the War !
I have just found copy of a letter I sent Mr. Winston
Churchill dated two months later, when those two very
eminent men, having cogitated over the matter, very
kindly informed me that the Visionary was justified.
I omit the details they kindly gave me, as I don't wish to
deprive them of any trade advantage in the furtherance
of their great commercial intentions with regard to the
oil engine, for it is just now the commercial aspect of the
internal combustion engine which enthrals us. A ship
now exists that has a dead weight capacity of 9,500 tons
with a speed of eleven knots (which is quite fast enough
for all cargo-carrying purposes) and she burns only a
little over ten tons of oil an hour. Having worked out
the matter, I conclude she would save roughly a thousand
191
RECORDS
pounds in fuel alone over a similar sized steamship in a
voyage of about 3,000 miles (say crossing the Atlantic) ;
and, of course, as compared with coal, she could carry
much additional cargo, probably about 600 tons more.
Then the getting rid of boilers and coal bunkers gives
another immense additional space to the oil engine
ship for cargo, as the oil fuel would be carried in
the double-bottom. A Swiss firm has put on board
an ocean-going motor-driven ship a Diesel engine
which develops 2,500 indicated Horse Power in one
cylinder, so that a quadruple-screw motor ship could
have 80,000 Horse Power with sixteen of these cylinders
cranked on each shaft. I don't see why one shouldn't
have a sextuple - screw motor ship with a hundred
thousand Horse Power. So it is ludicrous to say that
the internal combustion engine is not suited to big ships.
For some reason I cannot discover, " Tramp " owners
are hostile to the internal combustion engine. I hope
they will not discover their error too late. I sent
two marvellous pictures of a Motor Battleship to Mr.
Winston Churchill on November 17th, 191 2, saying to
him : —
" These pictures will make your mouth water ! "
However, this type of ship is obsolete for war before
she has been begun, as we have got to turn her into a
submersible — not that there is any difficulty in that — it
has already been described that in August, 1916, a
submersible vessel with a 12-inch gun was proposed and
after extreme hesitation and long delays in construction
was built, but she was completed too late to take part in
192
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
the war. She might have sunk a goodly number of the
German Fleet at the Battle of Jutland. But our motto in
the war was " Too Late." ^
The whole pith and marrow of the Internal Combustion
Engine lies in the science of metallurgy. We are
lamentably behind every foreign nation, without excep-
tion, in our application of the Internal Combustion Engine
to commercial purposes, because its reliability depends
on Metallurgy, in which science we are wanting, and we
are also wanting in scientific research on the scale of 12
inches to a foot. We have no scale at all !
We are going to be left behind !
The Board of Invention and Research, of which I was
President, after much persistence obtained the loan of a
small Laboratory at South Kensington, greatly aided by
Professor Dalby, F.R.S., for research purposes as regards
the Internal Combustion Engine ; but its capabilities
were quite inadequate. Then the President of the Council
(Earl Curzon) was to undertake the whole question of
Research on a great and worthy scale, and I got a most
kind letter from him. It ended with the letter !
In this connection I have had wonderful support from
Sir Marcus Samuel, who staked his all on Oil and
the Oil Engine. Where should we have been in this
War but for this Prime Mover ? Fve no doubt he is
an oil miUionaire now, but that's not the point. Oil is .
one of the things that won us the War. And when he
was Lord Mayor of London he was about the only
1 Only this morning (November 5th, 1919), I have arranged to deal
with the drawings of a proposed Submersible Battleship carrying many
Big Guns, and clearly a practicable production.
193 O
RECORDS
man who publicly supported me when it was extremely
unfashionable to do so.
Oil is the very soul of future Sea Fighting. Hence
my interest in it, and though not intending to work
again, yet my consuming passion for oil and the oil
engine made me accept the Chairmanship of a Royal
Commission on Oil and the Oil Engine when Mr.
Churchill and Mr. Asquith found me at Naples in May,
1912.
I have come to the conclusion that about the best
thing I ever did was the following exuberant outburst
over Oil and the Oil Engine. I observe it was printed
in November 191 2, written '' currente calamo," and
now on reading it over I would not alter a word. I am
only aghast at the astounding stupidity of the British
Shipbuilder and the British Engineer in being behind
every country in the development of motor ships.
Oil and the Oil Engine (191 2).
I. — With two similar Dreadnoughts oil gives 3 knots
more speed — ^that is if ships are designed to
burn oil only instead of oil and coal — and
speed is everything.
1\. — The use of oil fuel increases the strength of the
British Navy 33 per cent., because it can re-
fuel at sea off the enemy's Harbours. Coal
necessitates about one-third of the Fleet being
absent re-fuelling at a base (in case of war
with Germany) some three or four hundred
miles off ! — i.e.y some six or eight hundred
194
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
miles unnecessary expenditure of fuel and
wear and tear of machinery and men.
III. — ^Oil for steam-raising reduces the present engine
and boiler room personnel some 25 per cent.,
and for Internal Combustion Engines would
perhaps reduce the personnel over 60 per cent.
This powerfully affects both economy and
discipline.
IV. — Oil tankers are in profusion on every sea and as
England commands the Ocean {she must com-
mand the Ocean to live ! !) she has peripatetic
re-fuelling stations on every sea and every
oil tanker's position known every day to a
yard ! Before very long there will be a million
tons of oil on the various oceans in hundreds
of oil tankers. The bulk of these would be
at our disposal in time of war. Few or none
could reach Germany.
V. — The Internal Combustion Engine with one ton
of oil does what it takes four tons of coal to
do ! ^ And having no funnels or smoke is an
indescribable fighting asset ! (Always a chance
of smoke in an oil steam-raising vessel where
of course the funnels which disclose a ship
such an immense distance off are obligatory.
Each enemy's ship spells her name to you by
her funnels as they appear on the horizon,
while you are unseen !)
VI. — The armament of the Internal Combustion Ship
is not hampered by funnels, so can give all-
round fire, an inestimable advantage because
the armament can all be placed in the central
portion of the Hull with all-round fire, and
giving the ship better seaworthy qualities by
not having great weights in the extremities,
1 Note.— For steam raising 3 tons of oil are only equivalent to
4 tons of coal.
195 O 2
RECORDS
as obligatory where you have funnels and
boilers.
VII. — But please imagine the blow to British prestige
if a German warship with Internal Combustion
Propulsion is at sea before us and capable of
going round the World without re-fuelling !
What an Alabama ! ! ! What an upset to
the tremblers on the brink who are hesitating
to make the plunge for Motor Battleships !
According to a reliable foreign correspondent,
the keel of a big Oil-Engine Warship for the
German Navy is to be laid shortly. Krupp
has a design for a single cylinder of 4,000 H.P. !
He has had a six-cylinder engine of 2,000 H.P.,
each cylinder successfully running for over a
year.
VIII. — Anyhow, it must be admitted that the burning
of oil to raise steam is a roundabout way of
getting power ! The motor car and the
aeroplane take little drops, of oil and explode
them in cylinders and get all the power required
without being bothered with furnaces or boilers
or steam engines, so we say to the marine
engineer, *' Go and do thou likewise ! "
The sailor's life on the 70,000 H.P. coal using
Lion is worse than in any ship in the service
owing to the constant coalings.
It's an economic waste of good material to keep
men grilling in a baking fire hole at un-
necessary labour and use 300 men when a dozen
or so would suffice !
Certainly oil at present is not a cheap fuel ! but
it is cheap when the advantages are taken into
consideration. In an Internal Combustion
Engine, according to figures given by Lord
Cowdray, his Mexican oil would work out in
England, when freights are normal, as equiva-
196
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
lent to coal at twelve to fifteen shillings a
ton !
Oil does not deteriorate by keeping. Coal does.
You can store millions of tons of oil without
fear of waste or loss of power, and England has
got to store those millions of tons, though this
reserve may be gradually built up. The
initial cost would be substantial but the in-
vestment is gilt-edged I We must and can
face it. Si vis pacem para helium I
You can re-fuel a ship with oil in minutes as
compared with hours with coal !
At any moment during re-fuelling the oil-engine
ship can fight — the coal-driven ship can't —
she is disorganised — ^the whole crew are black
as niggers and worn out with intense physical
exertion ! In the oil-driven ship one man
turns a tap !
Ifs criminal folly to allow another pound of coal
on board a fighting ship ! — or even in a cargo-
ship either ! — Krupp has a design for a cargo-
ship with Internal Combustion Engines to go
40,000 (forty thousand) miles without re-
fuelling ! It's vital for the British Fleet and
vital for no other Fleet, to have the oil engine.
That's the strange thing! And if only the
Germans knew, they'd shoot their Dr. Diesel
like a dog !
Sir Charles Parsons and others prefer small units.
It is realised in regard to the multiplication of
small units (as the Lilliputians tied up Gulliver)
that though there is no important reason why
cylinders shall not be multiplied on the same
shaft yet the space required will be very large
— ^the engines thus spreading themselves in the
fore and aft direction — but here comes in the
ingenuity of the Naval Constructor and the
197
RECORDS
Marine Engineer in arranging a complete
fresh adaptation of the hull space and forthwith
immense fighting advantages will accrue ! Far
from being an insuperable objection it's a
blessing in disguise, for with a multiplicity of
internal combustion engines there undoubtedly
follows increased safety from serious or total
breakdown, provided that suitable means are
provided for disconnecting any damaged unit
and also for preventing in case of such failure
any damage to the rest of the system. The
storage of oil fuel lends itself to a remarkable
new disposition of the whole hull space.
Thus a battleship could carry some five or six
thousand tons of oil in her double bottoms —
sufficient to go round the earth without re-
fuelling. The " Non-Pareil " (being the French
for the " Incomparable ") will carry over 6,000
tons of oil in her double bottoms, with an
extra double bottom below those carrying the
oil. This is equal to 24,000 tons of coal !
This new arrangement of the hull space permits
some dozen motor boats being carried in a
central armoured pit (where the funnels used
to be). These 60-feet motor boats would
carry 21 -inch Torpedoes and have a speed of
40 knots. Imagine these hornets being let
loose in a sea fight ! The 21 -inch Torpedo
which they carry goes 5 miles ! And the
silhouette of an Internal Combustion Battle-
ship is over 30 per cent, less than any living or
projected Battleship in the target offered to
the enemy's fire.
TX.— Finally:
To he first in the race is everything !
Just consider our immense gains in having been
first with the water-tube boiler ! First with
198
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
the turbine ! First with the i3|-inch gun !
Just take this last as an illustration ! We shall
have 1 6 ships armed with the I3|-inch gun
before the Germans have a single ship with
anything bigger than the 12-inch, and the
i3J-incn is as superior to the 12-inch as the
1 2 -inch is to a peashooter.
And yet we hesitate to plunge with a Motor
Battleship ! Why boggle at this plunge when
we have plunged before, every time with
success ?
People say Internal Combustion Propulsion in a
hundred thousand horse-power Dreadnought
is similarly impossible ! " Wait and see ! " —
The " Non-Pareil " is coming along !
The rapid development of the oil engine is best
illustrated by the fact that a highly influential
and rich German syndicate have arranged for
six passenger steamers for the Atlantic and
Pacific Trade, of 22 knots speed and 36,000
H.P. with nine of Krupp's cyhnders of 4,000
H.P. each on three shafts.^
There need be no fear of an oil famine because
of the immense sure oil areas recently brought
to notice in Canada, Persia, Mesopotamia
and elsewhere. The British oil area in Trinidad
alone will be able to more than supply all the
requirements of the British Navy. Assuming
the present coal requirements of the Navy at
I J million tons annually, then less than half a
million tons of oil would suffice when the
whole British Navy is oil engined, and, as
recently remarked by the greatest oil magnate,
this amount would be a bagatelle compared
with the total output of oil, which he expects
before many years to reach an output of a
1 The War stopped this.— F. 19 19.
199
RECORDS
hundred million tons a year in consequence of
the great demand for developing its output
and the discovery of new oil areas and the
working of shale deposits.
We turned coal-burning Battleships that were building
in November, 19 14, into oilers, with great increase of
efficiency and speed.
I have chanced upon a Memorandum on ** Oil and
its Fighting Attributes," which I drew up on March 3rd,
191 3, for the First Lord of the Admiralty. It shows
what a Great Personality can effect. I was told by an
enemy of Mr. Deterding (of whom I am speaking) that
when he came in as Manager of the Great Shell Oil
Combine, the Concern could have been bought for
£40,000. When I wrote my Memorandum, it was
valued by a hostile Oil Magnate (who told me this him-
self) at forty millions sterling. Whether it is Oil, or
Peace, or War, it's the Man, and not the System that
Wins. And Mr. Deterding is the man who shifted the
centre of gravity of oil (together with an immense assem-
blage of clerks and chemists and all the paraphernalia of
a huge financial web) from abroad to this country.
" The ideal accumulator which everybody has been
after for the last 50 years, is oil. There will never
be found another accumulator or source of power of
such small volume as oil.
" Just fancy ! Get a gallon of oil and a man can go
to Brighton and back again, carrying the weight of his
bicycle and himself by means of it. . . .
** It's a shame that anybody is allowed to put oil
200
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
under a boiler — ^for this reason, that when oil is
used in an oil engine it realises about five times greater
effect. . . .
" The moment the price of oil is £5 a ton it will not
be used anywhere under a boiler for steam raising, and
the whole world's supply will be available for the Navy
and the Diesel Engine. . . .
" I am going to raise every penny I can get and build
storage, and even when I have built five million tons of
storage I am still going on building it and filling it, even
if it is only for the pleasure of looking at it. It is always
so much condensed labour stored for the future. . . .
" Oil fuel when stored, does not deteriorate as
coal does. The stocks would therefore constitute a
national asset, the intrinsic value of which would not
diminish." . . . (Mr. Deterding before the Royal Com-
mission on Oil and Oil Engines.)
My Memorandum was as follows : —
Mr. Deterding in his evidence before the Royal
Commission, confesses that he possesses in Roumania,
in Russia, in California, in the Dutch Indies, in
Trinidad, and shortly in Mexico, the controlling
interest in oil. The Anglo-Persian Company also say
he is getting Mesopotamia and squeezing Persia which
are practically untouched areas of immense size reeking
with oil. Without doubt Mr. Deterding is Napoleonic
in his audacity and Cromwellian in his thoroughness.
Sir Thomas Browning in his evidence says that the
Royal Dutch- Shell Combination is more powerful and
aggressive than ever was the great Standard Oil Trust
of America.
Let us therefore listen with deep attention to the
words of a man who has the sole executive control of
the most powerful organisation on earth for the pro-
duction of a source of power which almost doubles the
power of our Navy whilst our potential enemies remain
201
RECORDS
normal in the strength of their fleets. What does he
advise ?
He says : " Oil is the most extraordinary article in
the commercial world and the only thing that hampers
its sale is its production. There is no other article
in the world where you can get the consumption as long
as you make the production. In the case of oil make
the production first as the consumption will come.
There is no need to look after the consumption, and
as a seller you need not make forward contracts as
the oil sells itself." Only what you want is an enor-
mously long purse to be able to snap your fingers at
everybody and if people do not want to buy it to-day
to be able to say to them : '' All right ; I will spend a
million sterling in making reservoirs and then in the
future you will have to pay so much more." " The
great point for the Navy is to get oil from someone
who can draw supplies from many spots, because no
one spot can be absolutely relied on." There is not
anybody who can be certain of his supply ; oil fields in
my own experience which at the time yielded 18,000
barrels a day within five days went down to 3,000 barrels
without the slightest warning.
The British Empire " has the long purse " ; huild
reservoirs and store oil. Keep on building reservoirs and
buy oil at favourable rates when they offer,
November 21st, 1917.
The report below of the Secretary of the United States
Navy is interesting. I have just been looking up the
record in 1886, when high officials said I was an *' Oil
Maniac." I was at that time at the Admiralty as Director
of Naval Ordnance, and was sent from that appointment
to be Admiral Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard,
202
NOTES ON OIL AND OIL ENGINES
prior to being appointed Controller of the Navy, where I
remained six years. At Portsmouth Dockyard, while I
was Admiral Superintendent, we paved the way for rapid
shipbuilding in the completion of the Battleship *' Royal
Sovereign " in two years. Afterwards, with the same
superintendence but additional vigour, we completed the
** Dreadnought '* in one year and one day ready for
Battle !
Oil Burning Battleships.
Washington.
Mr. Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, issues a report
urging that Congress should authorise the construction
of three Battleships, one Battle Cruiser, and nine Fleet
Submarines. He favours oil-burning units, and says
that the splendid work which has been accomplished by
these vessels would not have been done by coal-burning
ships. The use of any other power hut oil is not now in
sight.
203
( ?
CHAPTER XIII
THE BIG GUN
Perhaps the most convincing speech I ever read was
made impromptu by Admiral Sir Reginald Bacon at a
meeting of the Institution of Naval Architects on
March 12th, 1913.
First of all Admiral Bacon disposed of the fallacy
brought forward by one of the speakers, as to which is more
effective in disabling the enemy, to destroy the structure
of the ship or destroy the guns — ^the fact being that both
are bound up together — if you utterly destroy the hull of
the ship you thereby practically destroy the gun-fire. "^
(This is one of those things so obvious that one greatly
wonders how these clever experts lose themselves.)
Then Admiral Bacon in a most lovely parable disposed
of the '* Bow and Arrow Party," who want a lot of small
guns instead of, as in the Dreadnought, but one type of
gun and that the heaviest gun that can be made. This
is Admiral Bacon : —
" I should like to draw your attention to some advice
that was given many years ago by an old Post Captain
to a Midshipman. He said, ' Boy, if ever you are dining
and after dinner, over the wine, some subject like politics
is discussed when men's passions are aroused, if a man
204
THE BIG GUN
throws a glass of wine in your face, do not throw a glass
of wine in his : Throw the decanter stopper ! ' And that
is what we advocates of the Heavy Gun as mounted in
the Dreadnought propose to do — not to slop the six-
inch shot over the shirt-front of a battleship, but to go
for her with the heaviest guns we can get ; and the
heavier the explosive charge you can get in your shell
and the bigger explosion you can wreak on the structure
near the turrets and the conning tower and over the
armoured deck the more likely you are to disable that
ship. We object most strongly to the fire of the big
guns being interfered with by the use of smaller guns
at the same time with all the smoke and mess that are
engendered by them. The attention of the Observing
Officers is distracted ; their sight is to a great extent
obliterated, and even the theoretical result of the small
guns is not worth the candle. . . . The ordinary six-
inch gun in a battleship is, as regards torpedo-boat
attack, of just as much use as a stick is to an old gentleman
who is being snow-balled : it keeps his enemy at a
respectful distance but still within the vulnerable range
of the torpedo. In these days the locomotive torpedo
can be fired at ranges at which it is absolutely impossible
even to hope or think of hitting the Destroyer which
fires the torpedoes at you. You may try to do it, but
it is quite useless. Very well, then ; the six- inch gun
does keep the Destroyer at a longer range than would
be the case if the six-inch gun were not there, that's
all. . . . Then the problem of speed has been touched
upon. I quite see from one point of view that to lose
two guns for an extra five-knot speed seems a great loss ;
but there is one question which I should like to ask,
and that is whether you would send out to sea a whole
fleet, the whole strength of the nation, with no single
ship of sufficient superior speed to pick up a particular
ship of the enemy ? That is the point to rivet your
attention upon. We must always in our Navy have
205
RECORDS
ships of greatly superior speed to any one particular
ship in the enemy's fleet, otherwise over the face of the
sea you will have ships of the enemy roaming about
that we cannot overhaul and that nothing can touch."
The above words were spoken by Admiral Bacon two
and three-quarter years before Admiral von Spec and
his fast Squadron were caught up and destroyed by
the British fast Battle Cruisers, " Invincible " and
" Inflexible." Admiral Bacon was a prophet ! In other
words. Admiral Bacon had Common Sense, and saw
the Obvious.
It's difficult for a shore-going person to realise things
obvious to the sailor. For instance : in the case of a
Big Gun, if twice two is four, then twice four isn't eight,
it's sixteen, and twice eight isn't sixteen, it's sixty-four ;
that is to say, the bursting effect of a shell varies with
the square. So the bigger the calibre of the gun the
more immense is the desolating effect of the shell, and,
incidentally, the longer the range at which you hit the
enemy.
The projectile of the 20-inch gun that was ready to
be made for H.M.S. " Incomparable ^' weighed over
two tonSy and the gun itself weighed 200 tons. Such
a projectile, associated with a Howitzer, may effect vast
changes in both Sea and Land War, because of the
awful and immense craters such shell explosions would
effect.
To illustrate the frightful devastating effect of such
huge shell I will tell a story that I heard from a great
friend of mine, a Japanese Admiral. He was a Lieu-
206
THE BIG GUN
tenant at the time of the Chino- Japanese War. The
Chinese vessels mounted very heavy guns. One of
their shells burst on the side of the Japanese ship in
which my friend was. The Captain sent him down off
the bridge to see what had happened, as the ship tottered
under the effect of this shell. When he got down on
the gun deck, he saw, as it were, the whole side of the
ship open to the sea, and not a vestige of any of the
crew could he see. They had all been blown to pieces.
The only thing he rescued was the uniform cap of his
friend, the Lieutenant who was in charge of that division
of guns, blown up overhead between the beams. The
huge rope mantlets that acted as splinter nettings hung
between the guns had utterly disappeared and were
resolved into tooth powder ! (so he described it).
I digress here with an anecdote that comes to my mind
and which greatly impressed me with the extraordinary
humility of the Japanese mind. I had remonstrated
with my Japanese friend as to Admiral Togo not having
been suitably rewarded for his wonderful victory over
the Russian Admiral Rozhdestvensky. He replied :
" Sir, Admiral Togo has received the Second Class of
the Order of the Golden Kite ! " We should have made
him a Duke straight off ! Togo was made a Count
afterwards, but not all at once — for fear, I suppose, of
giving him a swelled head. He was a great man, Togo ;
he was extremely diffident about accepting the English
Order of Merit, and even then he wore the Order the
wrong way out, so that the inscription " For Merit "
should not be seen. The Mikado asked him, after the
207
RECORDS
great battle, to bring to him 'the bravest man in the
Fleet ; the Mikado expecting to see a Japanese of some
sort. I am told that Admiral Togo brought Admiral
Pakenham, who was alongside him during the action.
I quite believe it ; but I have always been too shy to
ask my friend if it was true. All I know is that I never
read better Despatches anywhere than those of Admiral
Pakenham.
Somewhat is said in my " Memories " of the un-
mistakable astoundingness of huge bursting charges
in the shell of big guns. (I should be sorry to limit the
effects to even Geometrical Progression !) I don't
think Science has as yet more than mathematically
investigated the amazing quality of Detonation. Here is
a picture (see opposite p. 176) of only eighteen inch gun
shells, such as the Battle Cruiser " Furious " was
designed and built to fire. Her guns with their enormous
shells were built to make it impossible for the Germans
to prevent the Russian Millions from landing on the
Pomeranian Coast 1 In this connection I append a
rough sketch by Oscar Parkes of a twenty-inch gun
ship (see opposite). The sketch will offend the
critical eye of my very talented friend, Sir Eustace
Tennyson d'Eyncourt, but it's good enough for shoregoing
people to give them the idea of what, but for the pro-
digious development of Air-craft, would have been as great
a New Departure as was the '* Dreadnought." The shells
of the " Incomparable " fired from her twenty-inch
guns would each have weighed over two tons ! Imagine
two tons being hurled by each of these guns to a height
208
THE BIG GUN
above the summit of the Matterhorn, or any other moun-
tain you like to take, and bursting on its reaching the
ground far out of human sight, but yet with exact
accuracy as to where it should fall, causing in its ex-
plosion a crater somewhat like that of Vesuvius or Mount
Etna, and consequently you can then easily imagine the
German Army fleeing for its life from Pomerania to
Berlin. The '* Furious " (and all her breed) was not
built for Salvoes ! They were built for Berlin, and
that's why they drew so little water and were built so
^^^ fragile, so as to weigh as little as possible, and so go
faster.
It is very silly indeed to build vessels of War so strong
as to last a hundred years. They are obsolete in less than
ten years. But the Navy is just one mass of Tories !
In the old days a Sailing Line of Battleship never became
obsolete ; the winds of Heaven remained as in the days
of Noah. I staggered one Old Admiral by telling him
that it blew twice as hard now as when he was at sea ;
he couldn't go head-to-wind in his day with sails only,
now with the wind forty miles against you you can go
forty miles dead against it, and therefore the wind is
equal to eighty miles an hour. He didn't quite take it
in. I heard one First Sea Lord say to the Second Sea
Lord, when scandalised at seeing in a new ship a bath-
room for the midshipmen, that he never washed when
he went to sea and he didn't see why the midshipmen
should now 1 But what most upset him was that the
seat of the water-closet was mahogany French-polished,
instead of good old oak holystoned every morning and
209 p
RECORDS
so always nice and damp to sit on. (Another improve-
ment is unmentionable !)
I must not leave this chapter v^ithout expressing my
unbounded delight in having to do business with so
splendid a man as Major A. G. Hadcock, the Head of
the Ordnance Department at the Elswick Works, who
fought out single-handed all the difficulties connected
with the inception of the eighteen-inch and the twenty-
inch guns of the " Furious " and " Incomparable."
I have another friend of the same calibre, who has
consistently been in the forefront of the Battle for the
adoption of the biggest possible gun that could be con-
structed — Admiral Sir Sydney Eardley-Wilmot ; he was
also the most efficient Chief of the Munitions Department
of the Admiralty. When I was gasping with Hadcock
over a 20-inch gun, Wilmot had a 22-inch gun ! I
really felt small (quite unusual with me !). Now I hope
no one is going to quote this line when they review
this book : — '* Some men grow great, others only swell."
210
CHAPTER XIV
SOME PREDICTIONS
When I was *' sore let and hindered " in the days of
my youth as a young Lieutenant, a cordial hand was
always held out to me by Commodore Goodenough.
He was killed by the South Sea Islanders with a poisoned
arrow. Being on intimate terms with him, I sent him,
in 1868, a reasoned statement proving conclusively that
masts and sails were damned as the motive power of
warships.
(As a parenthesis I here insert the fact that so late as
1896 a distinguished Admiral, on full pay and in active
employment, put forward a solemn declaration that unless
sixteen sailing vessels were built for the instruction of
the Officers and men of the Navy the fighting efficiency
of the Fleet would go to the devil.)
Commodore Goodenough was so impressed by my
memorandum that he had a multitude of copies printed
and circulated, with the result that they were all burnt
and I was damned, and I got a very good talking to by
the First Sea Lord. I hadn't the courage of those fine
old boys — Bishops Latimer and Ridley — and ran away
from the stake. Besides, I wanted to get on. I felt
211 p 2
RECORDS
my day had not yet come. Years after, I commanded
the " Inflexible," still with masts and sails. She had
every sort of wonderful contrivance in engines, electricity,
etc. ; but however well we did with them we were accorded
no credit. The sails had as much effect upon her in a
gale of wind as a fly would have on a hippopotamus in
producing any movement. However, we shifted topsails
in three minutes and a half and the Admiral wrote home
to say the '' Inflexible " was the best ship in the Fleet.
Ultimately the masts and sails were taken out of
her.
It was not till I was Director of Naval Ordnance that
wooden boarding pikes were done away with. I had a
good look round, at the time, to see if there were any
bows and arrows left.
What my retrograde enemies perfectly detested was
being called ** the bow and arrow party." When later
they fought against me about speed being the first
desideratum, the only way I bowled them over was by
designating them as " the Snail and Tortoise party."
It was always the same lot. They wanted to put on so
much armour to make themselves safe in battle that
their ideal became like one of the Spithead Forts — ^it
could hardly move, it had so much armour on. The
great principle of fighting is simplicity, but the way a
^ ship used to be built was that you put into her every-
body's fad and everybody's gun, and she sank in the
water so much through the weight of all these different
fads that she became a tortoise ! The greatest possible
speed with the biggest practicable gun was, up to the
212
SOME PREDICTIONS
time of aircraft, the acme of sea fighting. Now, there
is only one word — " Submersible.**
But to proceed with another Prediction :
The second prediction followed naturally from the
first. With machinery being dictated to us as the motive
power instead of sails, officers and men would have to
become Engineers, and discipline would be better, and
so you would not require to have Marines to shoot the
sailors in case of mutiny. Now this does sound curious,
but again it is so obvious. When the sails were the
motive power, the best Petty Officers — ^that is to say,
the smartest of the seamen — got their positions, not by
good conduct, but by their temerity aloft, and the man
who hauled out the weather-earing in reefing topsails
in a gale of wind and balanced himself on his stomach
on a topsail yard, with the ship in a mountainous sea,
was a man you had to have in a leading position, whatever
his conduct was. But once the sails were done away
with and there was no going aloft, then the whole ship's
company became what may be called " good conduct **
men, and could be Marines, or, if you liked to call them
so. Sailors. One plan I had was to do away with the
sailors ; and another plan I had was to do away with
Marines. I plumped for the sailors, though I loved the
Marines.
In December, 1868, 1 predicted and patented a sympa-
thetic exploder for submarine mines. In the last
year of the war this very invention proved to be the
most deadly of all species of submarine mines.
Quite a different sort of prediction occurs in a letter
213
RECORDS
I wrote to Sir Maurice Hankey in 1910, and of which he
reminded me in the following letter :
Letter from Sir M. Hankey, K.C.B. (Secretary to
THE War Cabinet).
Offices of the War Cabinet,
2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W.
May 2Sth, 1917.
My Dear Lord Fisher,
I am sending your letter along to my wife and asking
her to write to you and send both a copy of your letter
to me in 1910 about Mr. Asquith's leaving office in
November, 1916,^ and also to write to you about your
prophecy of war with Germany beginning in 1914, and
Sir John Jellicoe being in command of the Grand Fleet
when war broke out.
I have the clearest recollection of the incident. My
wife and I had been down to you for a week-end to
Kilverstone. You had persuaded us not to go up by the
early train on the Monday, and you took us to the rose-
garden, where there was a sundial with a charming and
interesting inscription. You linked one arm through my
wife*s and the other through mine, and walked us round
and round the paths, and it was walking thus that you
made the extraordinary prophecy —
" The War will come in 1914, and Jellicoe will command the
Grand Fleet.'"
I remember that my practical mind revolted against the
prophecy, and I pressed you for reasons. You then told
us that the Kiel Canal, according to experts whom you
had assembled five or six years before to examine this
* This was said in 191 o, and Mr. Asquith did leave office as here pre-
dicted, in November, 1916, six years afterwards I And Sir John
Jellicoe took command of the Grand Fleet forty-eight hours before war
was declared, and the war with Germany did break out as predicted in
1914I
214
SOME PREDICTIONS
question, could not be enlarged for the passage of the
new German Dreadnoughts before 19 14, and that
Germany, though bent on war, would not risk it until
this date. As regards Jellicoe, you explained how you
yourself had so cast his professional career in such
directions as to train him for the post, and, after a brief
horoscope of his normal prospects of promotion, you
indicated your intention of watching over his career — •
as you actually did.
All this remains vividly in my mind, and I believe in
that of my wife, but, as I am not going home for a few
days, she shall give you her unbiassed account.
The calculation itself was an interesting one, but
what strikes me now as more remarkable is the " flair '*
with which you forecasted with certainty the state of
mind of the German Emperor and his advisers, and
their intention to go to war the first moment they
dared. . . .
No more now.
In haste,
Yours ever,
(Signed) M. P. A. Hankey.
The grounds for my prophecies are stated elsewhere.
I won't repeat them here. They really weren't pre-
dictions ; they were certainties.
I remark in passing that what the sundial said was : —
" Forsitan- Ultima."
By the way, I was called a sundial once by a vituperative
woman whom I didn't know ; she wrote a letter abusing
me as an optimist, and sent these lines : — •
" There he stands amidst the flowers,
Counting only sunny hours.
Heeding neither rain nor mist,
That brazen-faced old optimist."
215
RECORDS
Another woman (but I knew her) in sending me some
lovely roses to crown the event of a then recent success,
sent also some beautiful lines likewise of her own making.
She regretted that I preferred a crown of thorns to a
crown of the thornless roses she sent me. The rose
she alluded to is called " Zephyrine Drouhin,'* and, to
me, it is astounding that it is so unknown. It is abso-
lutely the only absolute thornless rose ; it has absolutely
the sweetest scent of any rose ; it is absolutely the most
glorious coloured of all roses ; it blooms more than any
rose ; it requires no pruning, and costs less than any rose.
I planted these roses when I left the Admiralty in 1910.
Somebody told the Naval Attache at Rome, not knowing
that he knew me, that I had taken to planting roses, and
his remark was : " They'll d — d well have to grow ! "
He had served many years with me.
216
CHAPTER XV
THE BALTIC PROJECT
Note. — ^This paper was submitted for my consideration by Sir
Julian Corbett, in the early autumn of 1914.
From the shape the war has now taken, it is to be
assumed that Germany is trusting for success to a repeti-
tion of the methods of Frederick the Great in the Seven
Years' War. Not only are the conditions of the present
war closely analogous — ^the main difference being that
Great Britain and Austria have changed places — but
during the last 15 years the German Great General Staff
have been producing an elaborate study of these cam-
paigns.
Broadly stated, Frederick's original plan in that war
was to meet the hostile coalition with a sudden offensive
against Saxony, precisely as the Germans began with
France. When that offensive failed, Frederick fell back
on a defensive plan under which he used his interior
position to deliver violent attacks beyond each of his
frontiers successively. By this means he was able for
seven years to hold his own against odds practically
identical with those which now confront Germany ; and
in the end, though he made none of the conquests he
217
RECORDS
expected, he was able to secure peace on the basis of the
status quo ante and materially to enhance his position in
Europe.
In the present war, so far as it has gone, the same
methods promise the same result. Owing to her excellent
communications, Germany has been able to employ
Frederick's methods with even greater success than he
did ; and at present there seems no certain prospect of
the Allies being able to overcome them soon enough to
ensure that exhaustion will not sap the vigour and
cohesion of the coalition.
The only new condition in favour of the Allies is that
the Command of the Sea is now against Germany, and
it is possible that its mere passive pressure may avail to
bring her to a state of hopeless exhaustion from which
we were able to save Frederick in the earlier war. If it
is believed that this passive pressure can achieve the
desired result within a reasonable time, then there is no
reason for changing our present scheme of naval opera-
tions. If, on the other hand, we have no sufficient
promise of our passive attitude effecting what is required
to turn the scale, then it may be well to consider the
possibility of bringing our Command of the Sea to bear
more actively.
We have only to go back again to the Seven Years'
War to find a means of doing this, which, if feasible
under modern conditions y would promise success as
surely as it did in the eighteenth century.
Though Frederick's method succeeded, it was once
brought within an ace of failure. From the first he knew
218
THE BALTIC PROJECT
that the weak point of his system was his northern
frontier.
He knew that a blow in force from the Baltic could at
any time paralyse his power of striking right and left^ and
it was in dread of this from Russia that he began by pressing
us so hard to provide him with a covering fleet in that sea.
Owing to our world-wide preoccupations we were
never able to provide such a fleet, and the result was that
at the end of 1761 the Russians were able to seize the
port of Colberg, occupy the greater part of Pomerania,
and winter there in preparation for the decisive campaign
in the following spring. Frederick's view of his danger
is typified in the story that he now took to carrying a phial
of poison in his pocket. Owing, however, to the sudden
death of the Czarina in the winter the fatal campaign
was never fought. Russia made peace and Prussia was
saved.
So critical an episode in the early history of Prussia
cannot be without an abiding influence in Berlin.
Indeed, it is not too much to say that in a country
where military thought tends to dominate naval plans,
the main value of the German Fleet must be its ability to
keep the command of the Baltic so far in dispute that hostile
invasion across it is impossible.
If then it is considered necessary to adopt a more drastic
war plan than that we are now pursuing^ and to seek to
revive the fatal stroke of 1761, it is for consideration
whether we are able to break down the situation which the
German fleet has set up. Are we, in short , in a position
to occupy the Baltic in such strength as to enable an adequate
219
RECORDS
Russian army to land in the spring on the coast of Pomerania
within striking distance of Berlin or so as to threaten the
German communications eastward ?
The first and most obvious difficulty attending such
an operation is that it would require the whole of our
battle force, and we could not at the same time occupy
the North Sea effectively. We should, therefore, lie open
to the menace of a counterstroke which might at any time
force us to withdraw from the Baltic ; and the only means
of preventing this — since the western exit of the Kiel
Canal cannot be blocked —
would he to sow the North Sea with mines on such a scale
that naval operations in it would become impossible.
The objections to such an expedient, both moral and
practical, are, of course, very great. The chief moral
objection is offence to neutrals. But it is to be observed
that they are already suffering severely from the open-
sea mining which the Germans inaugurated, and it is
possible that, could they be persuaded that carrying the
system of open-sea mining to its logical conclusion would
expedite the end of the present intolerable conditions,
they might be induced to adopt an attitude of acquies-
cence. The actual attitude of the northern neutral
Powers looks at any rate as if they would be glad to
acquiesce in any measure which promised them freedom
from their increasing apprehension of Germany's inten-
tions. Sweden, at any rate, who would, after Holland,
be the greatest sufferer, has recently been ominously
reminded of the days when Napoleon forced her into war
with us against her will.
220
THE BALTIC PROJECT
In this connection it may also be observed that where
one belUgerent departs from the rules of civilised war-
fare, it is open to the other to take one of two courses.
He may secure a moral advantage by refusing to follow
a bad lead, or he may seek a physical advantage by
forcing the enemy's crime to its utmost consequences.
By the half measures we have adopted hitherto in regard to
open-sea mines^ we are enjoying neither the one advantage
nor the other.
On the general idea of breaking up the German war
plan by operations in the Baltic, it may be recalled that
it is not new to us. It was attempted — but a little too
late — during Napoleon's Friedland-Eylau campaign. It
was again projected in 1854, when our operations in the
Great War after Trafalgar, and particularly in the Penin-
sula, were still living memories. In that year we sent a
Fleet into the Baltic with the idea of covering the landing
of a French force within striking distance of Petrograd,
which was to act in combination with the Prussian army ;
but as Prussia held back, the idea was never carried out.
Still, the mere presence of our Fleet — giving colour to
the menace — did avail to keep a very large proportion
of the Russian strength away from the Crimea, and so
materially hastened the successful conclusion of the
war.
On this analogy, it is for consideration whether, even
if the suggested operation is not feasible, a menace of
carrying it out — concerted with Russia— might not avail
seriously to disturb German equilibrium and force her
to desperate expedients, even to hazarding a Fleet action
221
RECORDS
or to alienating entirely the Scandinavian Powers by
drastic measures of precaution.
\ The risks, of course, must be serious ; but unless we
are fairly sure that the passive pressure of our Fleet is
really bringing Germany to a state of exhaustion,
risks must he taken to use our command of the Sea with
greater energy ; or, so far as the actual situation promises,
we can expect no better issue for the present war than
that which the continental coalition was forced to accept
I in the Seven Years* War.
Lord Fisher to Mr. Lloyd George.
36, Berkeley Square,
London,
March 28th, 1917.
Dear Prime Minister,
I I hardly liked to go further with my remarks this
■ morning, recognising how very valuable your time is,
but I would have liked to have added how appalling it is
that the Germans may now be about to deal a deadly
blow to Russia by sending a large German Force by sea
from Kiel to take St. Petersburg (which, as the Russian
Prime Minister, Stolypin, told me, is the Key of Russia !
All is concentrated there !). And here we | are with our
Fleet passive and unable to frustrate this German Sea
attack on Russia. All this due to the grievous faulty
Naval strategy of not adopting the Baltic Project put
before Mr. Asquith in association with the scheme for
the British Army advancing along the Belgian Coast,
by which we should have re-captured Antwerp, and
there would have been no German submarine menace
such as now is. An Armada of 612 vessels was con-
structed to carry out this policy, thanks to your splendid
222
THE BALTIC PROJECT
approval of the cost when you were Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
I. Our Naval Strategy has been unimaginative.
II. Our shipbuilding Policy has been futile, inasmuch
as it has not coped with the German Submarine Menace.
III. Our Naval Intelligence of the enemy's doings is
good for nothing. For it is impossible to conceive there
would have been apathy at the Admiralty had it been
known how the Germans were building submarines in
such numbers — 3 a week, Sir John Jellicoe told us at
the War Cabinet. I say 5 a week.
Yours, etc., >
(Signed) Fisher.
28/3/17.
I append a couple of extracts from Memoranda made
by me in 1902, when I was Commander-in-Chief of
the Mediterranean Fleet.
** Here we see 5,000 of these offensive floating mines
laid down off Port Arthur, covering a wider space than
the English Channel, and we, so far, have none, nor any
vessel yet fitted ! What a scandal ! For a purpose
unnecessary to be detailed here, it is absolutely obligatory
for us to have these mines instantly for war against
Germany. They are an imperative strategic necessity,
and must be got at once."
Automatic Dropping Mines for Ocean Use.
" The question of the use of these mines as an adjunct
to a Battle Fleet in a Fleet action has not been put for-
ward so strongly as desirable as compared with their use
for preventing ingress or egress to a port. They can be
used with facility in the open sea in depths up to 150
fathoms. There is no question that they could be em-
223
RECORDS
ployed with immense effect to protect the rear of a
retreating Fleet. This type of mine is quite different to
the blockade mine. They are offensive mines. Is it
wise, indeed is it prudent not to acquaint ourselves, by
exhaustive trials, what the possibility of such a weapon
may be, and how it may be counteracted ? "
224
CHAPTER XVI
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
ScAPA Flow.
Ages before the War, but after I became First Sea
Lord on Trafalgar Day, 1904, I was sitting locked up in
a secluded room that I had mis-appropriated at the
Admiralty, looking at a chart of the North Sea, and playing
with a pair of compasses, when these thoughts came into
my mind ! " Those d — d Germans, if dear old Tirpitz
is only far-seeing enough, will multiply means of * dishing '
a blockade by making the life of surface ships near the
coast line a burden to them by submarines and destroyers.
(At this time the Germans had only one submarine, and
she a failure !) Also, as their radius of action grows
through the marvellous oil engine, and ' internal com-
bustion ' changes the face of sea war, we must have our
British Fleet so placed at such a distance from hostile
attack that our Force off the Enemy's Coast will cut off
his marauders at daylight in the morning on their maraud-
ing return." I put that safe distance for the British
Fleet on my compasses and swept a circle, and behold it
came to a large inland land-locked sheet of water, but
there was no name to it on the chart and no soundings
225 Q
RECORDS
in it put on the chart. I sent for the Hydrographer, and
pointing to the spot, I said : " Bring me the large scale
chart. What's its name ? " He didn't know. He would
find out.
He was a d — d long time away, and I rang the bell
twice and sent him word each time that I was getting
angry!
When he turned up, he said it hadn't been properly
surveyed, and he believed it was called Scapa Flow ! So
up went a surveying ship about an hour afterwards, and
discovered, though the current raged through the Pent-
land Firth at sometimes 14 knots, yet inside this huge
secluded basin it was comparatively a stagnant pool !
Wasn't that another proof that we are the ten lost tribes
of Israel ? And the Fleet went there forty-eight hours
before the War, and a German in the German Fleet
wrote to his father to say how it had been intended to
torpedo the British Fleet, but it had left unexpectedly
sooner for this Northern ** Unknown ! " Also, he said
in his letter that Jellicoe's appointment as Admiralissimo
was very painful to them as they knew of his extreme
skill in the British Naval Manoeuvres of 191 3. Also,
thirdly, he added to his Papa that it was a d— d
nuisance we had bagged the two Turkish Dreadnoughts
in the Tyne the very day they were ready to start, as
they belonged to Germany !
The mention of Jellicoe reminds me of Yamamoto
saying to me that, just before their War with Russia,
he had superseded a splendid Admiral loved by his Fleet,
because Togo was " just a little better 111"
226
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
The superseded man was his own protege^ and Togo
wasn't. No wonder these Japanese fight !
Prince Fushishima, the Mikado's brother, told me of
4,000 of a special company of the bluest blood in Japan,
of whom all except four were killed in action or died of
wounds — only nine were invalided for sickness. How-
ever, I remarked to him we were braver than those 4,000
Japanese, because their religion is they go to Heaven if
they die for their country, and we are not so sure ! He
agreed with me, and gave me a lovely present.
A Pre- War Prophecy.
On December the 3rd, 1908, when I was First Sea /
Lord of the Admiralty, I hazarded a prophecy (but, of
course, I was only doing the obvious !) that should we
be led by our anti-Democratic tendencies in High Places,
and by Secret Treaties and by Compromising Attendances
of Great Military Officers at the French Manoeuvres at
Nancy, into a sort of tacit pledge to France to land a
British Army in France in a war against Germany, then
would come the biggest blow to England she would ever
have experienced — ■ not a defeat, because we never
succumb — ^but a deadly blow to our economic resources
and by the relegation of the British Navy into a '' Sub-
sidiary Service." I said in 1908 (and told King Edward
so) that the German Emperor would, in such a case,
order his generals '* to fight neither with small nor great,"
but only with the English and wipe them out ! So has it
227 Q 2
I
RECORDS
come to pass, as regards the Emperor giving these orders
and his having this desire !
The original English Expeditionary Force was but a
drop in the Ocean as compared with the German and
French millions of soldiers, and the value, though not
the gallantry of its exploits, has been greatly over-rated.
It was a very long time indeed before the British Army
held any considerable portion of the fighting line in
France, and instead of being on the seashore, in touch
with the British Fleet and with easy access to England,
the British Expeditionary Force was by French directions
and because of French susceptibilities, stationed far
away from the sea, and sandwiched between French
troops. We have always been giving in to the suscepti-
bilities of others and having none of our own ! The
whole war illustrates this statement. The Naval situation
in the Mediterranean perhaps exemplifies this more than
any other instance !
Had the French maintained the defensive in 19 15, it
is unquestionable that it would have been the Germans
and not the French who would have suffered the bloody
losses in the regions of Artois and the Champagne.
We built up a great Army^ hut we wrecked our ship-
building. We ought to have equipped Russia before we
equipped our own Armies, for, had we done so, the
Russians would never have sustained the appalling losses
they did in pitting pikes against rifles and machine-guns.
This was the real reason of the Russian Catastrophe —
the appalling casualties and the inability of the old regime
to supply armaments on the modern scale. Had another
228
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
policy been pursued and the British Fleet, with its
enormous supremacy, cleared the Baltic of the German
Navy and landed a Russian Army on the Pomeranian
Coast, then the War would have been won in 191 5 !
Also, as I pointed out in November, 1914, to Lord
Kitchener, we ought to have given Bulgaria all she
asked of us. When later we offered her these same
terms she refused us with derisive laughter !
There was no difficulty in all this, but we were pusil-
lanimous and we procrastinated.
We did not equip Russia I WE DID NOT SOW THE
NORTH SEA WITH THOUSANDS UPON THOU-
SANDS OF MINES, as I advocated in the Autumn of
1 9 14, and I bought eight of the fastest ships in the world
to lay them down ! This sowing of the North Sea with
a multitude of mines would automatically have established
a Complete Blockade ! Again, we did not foster Agricul-
ture, and we almost ceased building Merchant Ships,
and robbed our building yards and machine shops of the
most skilled artisans and mechanics in the world to become
*' cannon fodder " ! But a wave of unthinking Militarism
swept over the country and submerged the Government,
and we were in May, 191 8, hard put to it to bring the
American Army across the Atlantic as we were so short
of shipping. ^
It needs not a Soldier to realise that had the British
Expeditionary Force of 160,000 men been landed at
Antwerp by the British Fleet in August, 191 4 (instead of
its occupying a small sector in the midst of the French
Army in France), that the War would certainly have
229
RECORDS
ended in 191 5. This, in conjunction with the seizure of
the Bahic by the British Fleet and the landing of a
Russian Army on the Pomeranian Coast would have
smashed the Germans. All this was foreshadowed in
1908, and the German Emperor kindly gave me the
I credit as the Instigator of the Idea so deadly to Germany.
The " Monstrous " Cruisers so Derided in
Parliament
Note. — When I came to the Admiralty as First Sea
Lord in October, 19 14 — three months after the War had
begun — I obtained the very cordial concurrence and help
of Mr. Churchill and Mr. Lloyd George (Chancellor of
the Exchequer) in an unparalleled building programme
of 612 vessels of types necessary for a Big Offensive
in Northern Waters {the decisive theatre of the War).
Coal-burning Battleships then under construction were
re-designed to burn oil, with great increase of their
efficiency and speed, and the last two of these eight Battle-
ships were scrapped (the " Renown " and " Repulse "),
and, together with three new vessels — ^the " Courageous,"
" Glorious," and *' Furious " — ^were arranged to have
immense speed, heavy guns and unprecedented light
draught of water, thus enabling them to fulfil the very
work described in this letter below of absolutely disposing
of hostile light cruisers and following them into shallow
waters. They were also meant for service in the Baltic.
Ever since their production became known, Naval
critics in both Houses of Parliament (quite ignorant
of new Naval strategical and tactical requirements) have
consistently crabbed these new mighty Engines of War
as the emanations of a sick brain, " senile and autocratic I "
Hence the value of the following letter from an eye-
witness of high rank :
230
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
To Lord Fisher from a Naval Officer
December 12th, IQ17.
Dear Lord Fisher,
In the late action in the Heligoland Bight the only
heavy ships which could get up with the enemy were the
*' Repulse," " Courageous " and ** Glorious " (the
** Renown " and " Furious " were elsewhere).^ They
very nearly brought off an important ** coup ! " Without
them our light cruisers would not have had a " look in,*'
or perhaps would have been *' done in ! " When public
speakers desired to decry the work of the Board of which
you were a Member in 19 14 and 19 15, and particularly
that part of the work for which you were so personally
responsible as this new type of heavy ship, no con-
demnation was too heavy to heap on your design !
It is a pleasure to me, therefore, to be able to let you
know that they have fully justified your anticipation of
their success.
I trust you are quite well and will believe me,
Yours sincerely.
Lord Fisher to a Friend.
August 22nd, 1917.
My Beloved Friend,
I am scanning the dark horizon for some faint glimmer
of the end of the War. Not a sign of a glimmer ! So far
as the Germans are concerned, there is indisputable
authority for stating that Germany is equal to a seven
years' war ! Are we ? So far, alas ! we have had no Nelson,
no Napoleon, no Pitt ! The one only ** substantial
victory" of ours in the War (and, as Nelson wished, it
1 These are the five Battle Cruisers built on my return to the
Admiralty in 19 14-19 15.
231
RECORDS
was not a Victory — it was Annihilation !) was the de-
struction of Admiral von Speeds Armada off the Falkland
Islands. . . . And the above accomplished under
the sole direction of a Septuagenarian First Sea Lord,
who was thought mad for denuding the Grand Fleet of
our fastest Battle Cruisers to send them 14,000 miles
on a supposed wild goose chase. . . . And how I
was execrated for inventing the Battle Cruisers ! * Mon-
strous Cruisers,'* they called them ! To this day such
asses of this kidney calumniate them, and their still more
wonderful successors, the *' Repulse," " Renown,**
'* Furious," ** Glorious," and " Courageous.** How
would they have saved England without these Fast
Battle Cruisers ? . . . And yet, dear friend, what comes
to the Author of the Scene ?
The words of Montaigne !
" Qui de nous n'a sa ' terre promise,'
Son jour d'extase,
Et sa fin en exil ? "
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) Fisher.
Note. — Much talk of a recent mot at a great dinner-
table, where society *s hatred of Lord Fisher was freely
canvassed, and his retirement (in May 19 15) much ap-
plauded. *' I did not know," remarked a statesman,
" that Mr. Pitt ever put Lord Nelson on the retired
list.**
The Dreadnought Battle Cruiser.
The following imaginary dialogue I composed in 1904
to illustrate the text that *' Cruisers without high speed
and protection are absolutely useless '* : —
" The * Venus,* an Armoured Cruiser, is approaching
her own Fleet at full speed !
232
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
i
" Admiral signals to * Venus* : * What have you seen ? *
*' * Venus ' replies : * Four funnels hull down.'
*' Admiral : * Well, what was behind ? '
" * Venus * replies : * Cannot say ; she must have four
knots more speed than I had, and would have caught
.me in three hours, so I had to close you at full speed.*
" Admiral's logical reply : ' You had better pay your
ship off and turn over to something that is some good ;
you are simply a device for wasting 400 men ! * "
The deduction is :
ARMOUR IS VISION.
So we got out the ** Dreadnought " Battle Cruiser on
that basis, and also to fulfil that great Nelsonic idea of
having a Squadron of very fast ships to bring on an
Action, or overtake and lame a retreating foe. And in
the great war this fast " Dreadnought '* Battle Cruiser
carried off all the honours. She sank the ** Bliicher " and
others, and also Admiral von Spec at the Falkland
Islands.
But the sine qua non in these great Ships must ever be
that they carry the Biggest Possible Gun. It was for this
reason that the i8-in. gun was introduced in the Autumn
of 1914^ and put on board the new Battle Cruiser
* This i8-in. gun was ordered by me without any of the usual
preliminary trials or any reference to any Gunnery Experts whatever.
The credit of its great success is due to Major Hadcock, Head of the
Elswick Ordnance Manufacturing Department, who also designed the
20-in. gun for the fast Battleship Type which was to have been built
had I remained at the Admiralty in May, 1915-
A model of this 20-in. gun Battle Cruiser of 35 knots speed, was got
out before I left the Admiralty — three days more they would have
started building.
233
RECORDS
" Furious " ; and indeed all was completely arranged for
20-in. guns being placed in the succeeding proposed
Battle Cruisers of immense speed and very light draft of
water and possessing the special merit of exceeding rapid
construction.
Alas ! those in authority went back on it 1 It was
precisely the same argument that made these same retro-
grade Lot's wives go back from oil to coal. Coal, they
said, was good enough and was so safe ! Lot's wife
thought of her toasted muffins. Notice now especially
that if a man is five per cent, before his time he may
possibly be accounted a Genius ! but if this same poor
devil goes ten per cent, better, then he's voted a Crank.
Above that percentage, he is stark staring Mad.
(N.B. — I have gone through all these percentages !)
The Way to Victory.
Lord Fisher to the Prime Minister.
House of Lords,
June 12th, 1917.
My Dear Prime Minister,
In November, 19 14, Sir John French came specially
from France to attend the War Council to consider a
proposal put forward by the Admiralty that the British
Army should advance along the sea shore flanked by the
British Fleet. Had this proposal been given effect to, the
German Submarine Menace would have been deprived
of much of its strength, and many Enemy Air Raids on
our coast would have been far more difficult. The con-
siderations which made me urge this proposal at that
time have continuously grown stronger, and to-day I feel
it my duty to press upon you the vital necessity of a
234
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
joint Naval and Military operation of this kind. I do not
feel justified in arguing the Military advantages which
are, however, so obvious as to be patent to the whole
world, nor the political advantage of getting in touch
with Holland along the Scheldt, but solely from a Naval
point of view the enterprise is one that ought to be
undertaken with all our powers without further delay.
The present occasion is peculiarly favourable, as we can
call upon the support of the whole American Fleet.
Yours truly,
(Signed) Fisher.
36, Berkeley Square,
London,
July nth, 1917.
My Dear Prime Minister,
In putting before your urgent notice the following two
propositions, I have consulted no one, and seen no
experts. It is the emanation of my own brain.
Owing to two years of departmental apathy and incon-
ceivable strategical as well as tactical blunders, we
are wrongly raided in the air, and being ruined under
water.
I remember a very famous speech of yours where you
pointed out that we had been fourteen times " Too
Late ! "
This letter is to persuade you against two more ** Too
lates " :
(i) The Air :
You want two ideas carried out :
(a) A multitude of bombing aircraft made like
Ford cars (so therefore very expeditiously
obtained thereby).
(b) The other type of aircraft constantly im-
proving to get better fighting qualities.
The Air is going to win the War owing to the sad
and grievous other neglects.
235
RECORDS
(2) The Water :
Here we have a very simple proposition. Now
that America has joined us, we have a simply
overwhelming sea preponderance]
Are you not going to do anything with this ?
Make the German Fleet fight, and you win the war !
How can you make the German Fleet fight ? By
undertaking on a huge scale, with an immense Armada of
special rapidly-built craft, an operation that threatens
the German Fleet's existence !
That operation, on the basis in my mind, is one abso-
lutely sure of success, because the force employed is so
gigantic as to be negligible of fools.
If you sweep away the German Fleet, you sweep away
all else and end the War, as then you have the Baltic clear
and a straight run of some 90 miles only from the Pomer-
anian Coast to Berlin, and it is the Russian Army we want
to enter Berlin, not the English or French.
Yours truly,
(Signed) FisAer.
Lord Fisher to a Friend.
February 28th, 1918.
My Dear Friend, . . .
Quite recently we lost a golden opportunity of wreck-
ing the residue of the German Fleet and wrecking the
Kiel Canal, when the main German Fleet went to Riga
with the German army embarked in a huge fleet of
transports and so requiring all the Destroyers and Sub-
marines of Germany to protect it.
Well, in reply to your question, this is what I would
do now :
I would carry out the policy enunciated in the Print
on the Baltic Project which was submitted early in the war^
and again reverted to in my letter to the Prime Minister,
dated June 2nd, 1916. Sow the North Sea with mines
» See Chapter XV.
236
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
as thick as the leaves in Vallombrosa 1 That blocks
effectually the Kiel Canal, if continued laying of these
mines is always perpetually going on with damnable
pertinacity ! Then I guarantee to force a passage into
the Baltic in combination with a great Military co-
operation, but that co-operation must not be the co-
operation of the Walcheren Expedition !
" Lord Chatham with his sword drawn
Was waiting for Sir Richard Strachan,
Sir Richard, longing to be at 'em !
Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham ! "
It has got to be chiefly a Naval Job ! And the Army
will be landed by the Navy ! The Navy will guarantee
landing the Army on the Coast of Pomerania and else-
where. Three feints, any of which can be turned into
a Reality.
Further in detail I won't go, but I can guarantee suc-
cess.
Have I ever failed yet ? It's an egotistical question,
but I never have !
What a d — d fool I should be to brag now if I wasn't
certain !
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) Fisher.
P.S. — I have heard some Idiots say that the Baltic
Sea is now impregnable because of German mines in
it. No earthly System of mines can possibly avoid
being destroyed. We can get into the Bahic whenever
we like to do so. I guarantee it.
** Sow THE North Sea with Mines."
(Written in November y 19 14).
The German policy of laying mines has resuhed in
denying our access to their harbours ; has hampered
237
RECORDS
our Submarines in their attempts to penetrate into
German waters ; and we have lost the latest type of
" Dreadnought " (" Audacious ") and many other war
vessels and over 70 merchant vessels of various sizes.
As we have only laid a patch of mines off Ostend (whose
position we have notified), the Germans have free access
to our coasts to lay fresh mines and to carry out raids and
bombardments.
We have had, to our own immense disadvantage in
holding up our coastwise traffic, to extinguish the navi-
gation lights on our East Coast, so as to impede German
ships laying mines. At times we have had completely to
stop our traffic on the East Coast because of German
mines ; and the risk is so great that freights in some
cases have advanced 75 per cent. — quite apart from
shortness of tonnage.
The Germans have laid mines off the North of Ireland,
and may further hamper movements of shipping in the
Atlantic.
The German mine-laying policy has so hindered the
movements of the British Fleet, by necessitating wide
detours, that to deal with a raid such as the recent Hartle-
pool affair involves enormous risks, while at the same
time the German Fleet can navigate to our coast with the
utmost speed and the utmost confidence. They know
that we have laid no mines, and the position, of course,
of their own mines is accurately charted by them —
indeed we know this as a fact. Our Fleet, on the con-
trary, has to confine its movements to deep water, or
slowly to grope its way behind mine-sweeping vessels.
238
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
There is no option hut to adopt an offensive mine-laying
policy.
It is unfortunate, however, that we have only 4,900
mines at present available. On February ist (together
with 1,000 mines from Russia) we shall have 9,110, and
on March ist we shall have 11,100 mines. This number,
however, is quite inadequate, but every effort is being
made to get more. Also FAST Mine-Layers are being
procured, as the present ones are very slow and their coal
supply very small. So at present we can only go very
slow in mine-laying ; but carefully selected positions can
be proceeded with.
We must certainly look forward to a big extension
of German mine-laying in the Bristol Channel and
English Channel and elsewhere, in view of Admiral
Tirpitz's recent statements in regard to attacking our
commerce.
Neutral vessels now pick up Pilots at the German island
of Sylt, and take goods unimpeded to German ports —
ostensibly carrying cotton, but more probably copper,
etc., and thus circumventing our economic pressure.^
This would be at once stopped effectually by a mine-laying
policy.
Nor could any German vessels get out to sea at speed as
at present ; they would have to go slow, preceded by
mine-sweeping vessels, and so would be exposed to attack
by our Submarines.
* The Foreign Ofi&ce would not permit an efficient blockade, and the
outrageous release of vessels carrying war- helping cargoes caused intense
dissatisfaction in the fleet. No vessels ever passed our chain of Cruisers
without detention and examination,
239
RECORDS
A Birthday Letter.
Lord Fisher to a Friend.
January 25th, 1918.
My Dear Friend,
A letter to-day on my birthday from an eminent
Engineer, cheers me up by saying that never has France
been so vigorously governed as she is now by her present
Prime Minister, Clemenceau, and that he is my age, 77.
The Conduct of the War, both by Sea and Land, has
been perilously effete and wanting in Imagination and
Audacity since May, 19 15.
I know these words of mine give you the stomach-
ache, but so did Jeremiah the Jews when he kept on
telling them in his chapter v., verse 31 :
** The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests [the unfit] bear rule by their
means,
And my people love to have it so.
And what will ye do in the end thereof ? "
(Why ! Send for Jephthah !)
" And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead '*
(who came supplicating, asking him to come back as
their captain)
" Did ye not hate me and expel me ?
And why are ye come unto me now when ye are
in distress ? "
And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah :
*' We turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go
with us and fight ! "
By Sea, when the German Fleet took the German
Army to Riga, we had a wonderful sure certainty of
destroying the German Fleet and the Kiel Canal, but
240
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THE NAVY IN THE WAR
we let it slip because there were risks. (As if war could
be conducted without risks !) Considered Rashness in
war is Prudence, and Prudence in war is usually a syn-
onym for imbecility !
Observe the Mediterranean ! The whole Sea Power
of France and Italy is collected in the Mediterranean to
fight the puny Austrian Fleet, but they haven't fought
it. Not only that, but hundreds of vessels of the English
Navy are perforce out in the Mediterranean to aid them ;
and yet the German ships, " Goeben " and " Breslau,"
known to be fast, powerful and efficient, emerge from
the Dardanelles with impunity and massacre two of our
Monitors — never meant to be out there and totally
unfitted for such service — and two obsolete British
Destroyers have to put up a fight ! But God intervened
and sent the ** Goeben " and " Breslau " on top of mines.
It was thus the act of God and not the act of our Sea
Fools that kept these two powerful German ships from
going to the coast of Syria, where they would have
played Hell with AUenby and our Palestine Army.
We have pandered to our Allies from the very be-
ginning of the War, and yet practically we find most of
the money and have found four million soldiers, and a
thousand millions sterling lent to Russia have been
lent in vain.
You know as well as I do that our Expeditionary
Force should have been sent in August, 19 14, to Antwerp
and not to France ; we should then have held the Belgian
Coast and the Scheldt, but this was too tame — ^we were
all singing :
" Malbrook s'en va-t'en guerre ! "
The Baltic Project was scoffed at, though it had the
impregnable sanction of Frederick the Great, and the
project was turned down in November, 1914 ; and now
the Germans, because of their possession of the Baltic
as a German lake, are going to annex all the Islands they
241 R
RECORDS
want that command Russia and Sweden, and the Russian
Fleet, with its splendid *' Dreadnoughts " and Destroyers
disappear and eight British Submarines have been sunk.
Ichabod !
Yours truly,
Fisher.
The German Submarine Menace.
Lord Fisher to a Friend. X
March 2nd, 1918.
My Dear " Mr. Faithful,"
You write anxious to have some connected statement
in regard to the whole history of the German Submarine
Menace.
Now, the first observation thereon is the oft-repeated
indisputable statement that no private person whatever
can hope to fight successfully any Public Department.
So even if you had the most conclusive evidence of
effete apathy such as at first characterised the dealing
with this German Submarine Menace, yet you would
to the World at large be completely refuted by a rejoinder
in Parliament of departmental facts. Nevertheless here
is a bit of Naval History.
In December, 191 5, the Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith)
unexpectedly came up to me in the Lobby of the House
of Commons, and said he was anxious to consult me
about Naval affairs, and he would take an early oppor-
tunity of seeing me ! However, he must have been put
off this for I never saw him. A month afterwards I
pressed him in writing to see Sir John Jellicoe in regard
to the paucity both of suitable apparatus and of suitable
measures to cope with the German Submarine Menace ;
after much opposition the Prime Minister himself sent
for Sir John Jellicoe and he appeared before the War
Council, This is my Memorandum at that time, dated
February 7th, 1916 :
242
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
MEMORANDUM.
** I have just heard that, notwithstanding the oppo-
sition to it, Sir John JeUicoe will attend the War Council
at 11.30 a.m. next Friday. That he may have strength
and power to overcome all ' the wiles of the Devil ' is
my fervent prayer.
'* That there has been signal failure since May, 1915,
to continue the Great Push previous to that date of
building fast Destroyers, fast Submarines, Mine
Sweepers and small Craft generally is absolutely indis-
putable.
" Above all, it was criminal folly and inexcusable on
the part of the Admiralty to allow skilled workmen
(20,000 of them) to be taken away from shipyards.
Also it was inexcusable and weak to give up the Admiralty
command of steel and other shipbuilding materials.
" Kitchener instantly cancelled the order to take men
from the shipyards when it was attempted by his sub-
ordinates while I was First Sea Lord. He saw the folly
of it !
" Again, deferring the shipbuilding that was in pro-
gress was fatuous. I saw myself two fast Monitors
(each of them a thousand tons advanced) from which
all the workmen had been called off. A few months
afterwards there was feverish and wasteful haste to com-
plete them. So was it with the five fast big Battle
Cruisers of very light draught of water. All similarly
delayed.
" Well ! Jellicoe, a * No Talker,' at the War Council
was opposed to a mass of * All Talkers,' so he did not
make a good fight ; but when he got back to the Grand
Fleet at Scapa Flow he remembered himself and wrote
a most excellent Memorandum, which put himself
right.
" However, a wordy war is no use ; nothing but a
cataclysm will stop our ' Facilis descensus Averni.' "
' 243 R 2
RECORDS
We must by some political miracle swallow up Korah,
Dathan and Abiram and have a fresh lot. In Parliament
we have nothing but the stiggestio falsi and the suppressio
vert I A little bit of truth skilfully disguised :
" A truth that's told with bad intent,
Beats any lie you can invent."
In reply to your question with reference to Mr. Bonar
Law*s corrected statement in Hansard, the Printer's date
at the bottom of the Submarine Paper/ sent to the Prime
Minister and First Lord of the Admiralty is January,
1 9 14, seven months before the War.
Yours always,
Fisher.
Lord Fisher to Sir Maurice Hankey^ K.C.B., Secretary
to the War Cabinet.
19, St. James's Square.
My Dear Hankey,
In reply to your inquiry, my five points of peace
(as regards Sea war only) are :
(i) The German High Sea Fleet to be delivered up
intact.
(2) Ditto, every German Submarine.
(3) Ditto, Heligoland.
(4) Ditto, the two flanking islands of Sylt and Borkum.
(5) No spot of German Territory in the wide world
to be permitted ! It would infallibly be a
Submarine Base.
Yours,
(Signed) Fisher,
October 21st, 1918.
(Trafalgar Day).
See Chapter XI.
244
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
Why we were not as relentless in carrying out our
Peace requirements at Sea as on Land is positively
incomprehensible .
The German Fleet was not turned over and was after-
wards sunk at pleasure by the German crews. I don*t
feel at all sure that every German submarine, complete
and incomplete, was handed over. Every oil engine
ought to have been cleared out of Germany. Through
some extraordinary chain of reasoning, absolutely in-
comprehensible, the three Islands of Heligoland, Sylt
and Borkum were not claimed and occupied. In view
of the prodigious development of Aircraft it was impera-
tive that these Islands should be in the possession of
England.
All this to me is absolutely astounding. The British
Fleet won the War, and the British Fleet didn^t get a
single thing it ought to have, excepting the everlasting
stigma amongst our Allies, of being fools, in allowing
the German Fleet to be sunk under our noses, because
we mistook the Germans for gentlemen.
The Miracle of the Peace
(that took place at the nth hour of the nth day of the
nth Month!) only equalled by the Destruction of
Sennacherib's Army, on the night described in the 25th
verse of the 19th chapter of Second Book of Kings !
The heading of the chapter is ''An Angel slayeth the
Assyrians."
" That night the Angel of the Lord went forth . . .
in the morning behold they were all dead corpses ! "
245
RECORDS
A Cabinet Minister, in an article (after the Armistice)
in a newspaper, stated that the Allies were ,at their
last gasp when the Armistice occurred as it did as a
Miracle ! for Marshal Foch had been foiled on the
strategic flank by the inability of the American Army
to advance and the unavoidable consequences of want of
experience in a new Army {immense hut inexperienced —
they were slaughtered in hecatombs and died like flies ! )
and so the American advance on the Verdun flank
was held up, and Haig therefore had to batter away
instead (and well he did it !). And though the British
Army entered Mons, yet the German Army was efficient,
was undemoralised, and had immense lines of resistance
in its rear before reaching the Rhine ! There was no
Waterloo, no Sedan, no Trafalgar (though there could
have been one on October 21st, 19 18, for the German
Naval Mutiny was known ! Sir E. Geddes said so in
a Mansion House Speech on November 9th, 19 18).
There was no Napoleon — no Nelson ! but " The Angel
of the Lord went forth. ..."
Lord Fisher to a Friend.
March 2jth, 1918.
My Dear Blank,
It has been a most disastrous war for one simple
reason — ^that our Navy, with a sea supremacy quite
unexampled in the history of the world (we are five
times stronger than the enemy) has been relegated into
being a ** Subsidiary Service ! ". . .
246
THE NAVY IN THE WAR
What crashes we have had ^
Tirpitz— Sunk.
Joffre — Stranded.
Kitchener — Drowned .
Lord French — ]
Lord Jelhcoe— [Made Viscounts.
Lord Devonport — J
Fisher — Marooned .
Sir W. Robertson— The " Eastern Command " in
Timbuctoo.
Bethmann-Hollweg — ]rr. j ,
Asquith— jTorpedoed.
Heaven bless you ! I am here walking lo miles a day !
and eating my heart out !
And a host of minor prophets promoted. (We don't
shoot now ! we promote !)
Yours, etc.,
(Signed) Fisher.
27/3/18.
To Lord Fisher from an Admirer,
21st November, 191 8.
Dear Lord Fisher,
We are just back after taking part in the most
wonderful episode of the war, and my heart is very full,
and I feel that the extraordinary surrender of the Flower
of the German Fleet is so much due to your marvellous
work and insight — in giving England the Fleet she has
— ^that I must write you !
I suppose the world will never again see such a sight
— 2L line of 14 heavy, modern, capital ships, with their
guns fore and aft in securing position, in perfect order
and keeping good station, quietly giving themselves up
without a blow or a murmur. Surely such a humiliating
247
RECORDS
and ignominious end could never have been even thought
of in all history past or present.
Had I been in a private ship I would have used every
endeavour to get you up to see the final fulfilment of
your life*s work. As it is, I can't think it was very gracious
of the authorities not to have ensured your presence.
But history will give you your due.
Forgive this effusion, and please don't bother to
answer it. But / realise that to-day's victory was yours,
and it is iniquitous that you were not here to see it.
Your affectionate and devoted admirer.
To Lord Fisher from Admiral Moresby.
Fareham,
July gth, 1918.
Dear old Friend,
Just a line. One of our '* Article writing " Admirals
sent me one of them on the progress of the war ! Your
name was not mentioned, nor your services alluded to !
I returned it, saying it was the play without Hamlet.
You might be wrong, or despised, but you could not be
ignored. With our Navy revolutionised, Osborne created,
obsolete cruisers scrapped, naval base shifted from
Portland to Rosyth, Dreadnoughts and Battle Cruisers
invented, Falkland Islands victory, and so on, he might
as well talk of Rome without Cassar. He replied and said
you were an Enigma, and that covered it all ! There is
some truth in this, for such are all born leaders of men,
from our Master, the greatest Enigma of all" (who made
thee thyself, who gave thee power to do these things),
down to all who can see what is going on on the other side
of the hill. . . .
Yours ever,
(Signed) J. Moresby.
248
POSTSCRIPT
Last night, in finishing off the examination of several
boxes of old papers, I came across a forgotten letter
written a fortnight after the Battle of Trafalgar from the
*' Dreadnought " (which ship participated in the Battle).
On mentioning it I was told there was a " Dreadnought '*
in the Navy at the time of Henry VIII. I think one of
the Docks at Portsmouth dates from that time, and the
" Dreadnought " may have been docked in it. I love
the delicious little touch at the end of this letter where
everyone seals their letters with black wax in memory of
Nelson, and the prayer and poetry are lovely. And
where his acquaintance in Collingwood's Ship ** had
been shortened by the Hand of Death," and
" Roll softly ye Waves,
Blow gently ye Winds
O'er the bosom of the deep where the bodies of the
Heroes rest, until the Great Day, when all that are in
their grave shall hear the Voice of the Son of God,
when thou O Sea ! shall give up thy dead to Life Im-
mortal, and thou O Britain be grateful to thy defenders !
that the Widows and Orphans of thy deceased Warriors
be precious in thy sight — Soothe their sorrows, alleviate
249
RECORDS
their distresses and provide for their wants by anticipating
their wishes."
(The Straits of Gibrahar the writer spells " Streights")
He adds " Our splendid Success has been dearly bought.
Our gallant Chief is dead. In the arms of Victory fell
the greatest Hero that ever any age or Nation ever
produced." '^
250
APPENDIX I
APPENDIX I
LORD fisher's GREAT NAVAL REFORMS
By W. T. Stead
" He being dead yet speaketh." — Hebrews xi. 4.
[The following account of Lord Fisher's Naval Reforms is extracted
from The Review of Reviews for February, 1910.]
I BRIEFLY summarise Lord Fisher's four great reforms :
1. The introduction of the nucleus crew system.
2. The redistribution of the fleets in accordance with
modern requirements.
3. The elimination of inefficient fighting vessels from
the Active List of the Navy.
4. The introduction of the all-big-gun type of battle-
ship and battleship-cruiser.
To these four cardinal achievements must be added
the system of common entry and training for all executive
officers and the institution and development of the Naval
War College and the Naval War Staff.
By the nucleus crew system all our available ships of
war are ready for instant mobilisation. From two-fifths
to three-fifths of their complement, including all the
253
RECORDS
expert and specialist ratings, are on board, so that they
are familiar with the ship and her armament. The rest of
the crew is held in constant readiness to come on board.
Fisher once aired, in after-dinner talk, the daring idea
that the time would come when the First Lord of the
Admiralty would be supreme over the War Office, and
would, as in the days of the Commonwealth, fill up
deficiencies in ships' crews by levies from the territorial
forces. Landsmen can serve guns as well as sailors.
The second great revolution was necessitated by the
alteration in the centre of international gravity occasioned
by the growth of the German Navy. Formerly the
Mediterranean Fleet ranked first in importance. Now
the Home Fleet concentrates in its four divisions all the
best fighting ships we possess. It is hardly too much to
say, as M. Hanotaux publicly declared, that Admiral
Fisher had, by concentration and redistribution, magnified
our fighting naval strength by an amount unparalleled in
a hundred years. That the fighting efficiency of the
Fleet has been doubled under Fisher's regime is to
understate the facts. To say it has been trebled would
hardly be over the mark. And what is the most marvel-
lous thing of all is that this enormous increase of efficiency
was achieved not only without any increase of the
estimates, but in spite of a reduction which amounted to
nearly five millions sterling — three and a half millions
actual and one and a half millions automatic increase
checked.
This great economy was largely achieved by the scrap-
ping of ships too weak to fight and too slow to run away.
254
APPENDIX I
One hundred and fifty obsolete and useless ships were
removed from the effective Hst ; some were sold, others
were broken up, while a third class were kept in store for
contingencies. They were lame ducks, all useless in war,
costly in peace, consuming stores, wasting the time of
officers and men. The obsolete ships were replaced on
foreign stations by vessels which could either fight or
fly. . . .
Of the introduction of the " Dreadnought " and super-
" Dreadnoughts " I have already spoken.
Apart from the above matters of high policy, a number
of other reforms or advances have been made during the
past five years which are beyond all criticism. Opinions
may differ as to the details of some of these services, but
there is no dispute as to their immense contribution to
the fighting efficiency of the Navy. Some of these may
be thus briefly enumerated :
1. Complete reorganisation of the dockyards. [6,000
redundant workmen discharged.]
2. Improved system of refits of ships, and limitation of
number of vessels absent at one time from any fleet for
repair.
3. Introduction of the Royal Fleet Reserve, composed
only of ratings who have served for a period of years in
the active service.
4. Improvements of Royal Naval Reserve, by enforcing
periodical training on board modern commissioned ships
in place of obsolete hulks or shore batteries.
5. Establishment and extension of Royal Naval Volun-
teer Reserve.
255
RECORDS
6. The establishment of a service of offensive mines
and mine-laying vessels.
7. The introduction of vessels for defensive mine-
sweeping in harbours and on the open sea.
8. A complete organisation of the service of auxiliary
vessels for the fleets in war.
9. The development of submarines, and the equip-
ment of submarine bases and all the necessary auxiliaries.
10. The proper organisation of the Destroyer Flotillas,
with their essential auxiliaries.
1 1 . The enormous development of wireless telegraphy
afloat, the equipment of powerful shore stations round
the coast and at the Admiralty, and the introduction of a
special corps of operators.
12. The experimental stage of aerial navigation entered
upon.
13. The foundation of the Royal Naval War College
and its development.
14. The establishment of Signal Schools at each port.
15. The establishment of a Navigation School.
16. Enormous advances in the Gunnery training and
eflSciency of the Fleet.
17. Great improvements in torpedoes and in the tor-
pedo training.
18. The introduction of a naval education and training
for Engine Room Artificers.
19. The introduction of the new rating of Mechanician
for the Stoker Class for engine-driving duties.
20. Complete reorganisation of the arrangements for
mobilisation, whereby every officer and man is always
256
APPENDIX I
detailed by name for his ship on mobilisation, and the
mobilisation of the whole fleet can be effected in a few
hours.
21. The introduction of a complete system of intelli-
gence of trade movements throughout the world.
22. The stores of the Fleet put on a modern basis both
in the storehouses ashore and those carried in the ships
themselves — recognising the far different conditions now
obtaining to those of sailing-ship days of long voyages,
necessitating larger supplies being carried, and modern
conditions of production and supply enabling stores on
distant stations and at home being rapidly replenished.
Some millions sterling were economised in this way with
increased efficiency, as the Fleet was supplied with up-
to-date articles ; the only thing that gained by the age of
the old system was the rum.
23. The provision of repair ships, distilling plant, and
attendant auxiliaries to all fleets, and the preparation of
plans elaborated in a confidential handbook providing
for all the auxiliary vessels required in war.
In addition to all the above reforms great improve-
ments have been made in the conditions of service of
officers and men, all tending to increase contentment
and thereby advance efficiency. Some of these are as
follows :
1. The introduction of two-year commissions, in place
of three years and often four [so that men were not so
long away from their homes and the crews of ships did
not get stale].
2. Increases of pay to many grades of both officers
257 s
RECORDS
and men — as regards Commanders, the only increase
since the rank was introduced.
3. Ship's Bands provided by the Service, and a School
of Music established, and foreign musicians abolished.
4. The long-standing grievances of the men with
regard to their victualling removed. Improvements in
cooking. Bakeries fitted on board ships.
5. The Canteen system recognised and taken under
Admiralty control, and the old abuses abolished.
6. The clothing system reformed, and much expense
saved to the men.
7. Great improvements effected in the position of
Petty Officers.
8. An educational test instituted for advancement to
Petty Officer.
9. Increase of pension granted to Chief Petty Officers.
10. Allotment stoppages abolished.
11. Allowances paid to men in lieu of victuals when
on leave.
12. Promotions from the ranks to Commissioned
Officer introduced.
13. Warrant rank introduced for the telegraphist,
stoker, ship's steward, writer, ship's police, and ship's
cook classes.
I print the foregoing from a return drawn up by an
expert familiar with details of the Service. To the
general reader they will be chiefly interesting as sug-
gesting the immense and multifarious labours of Admiral
Fisher. It is not surprising that he found it necessary
to start work every morning at four o'clock.
258
APPENDIX II
APPENDIX II
SYNOPSIS OF LORD FISHER'S CAREER.
Born January 25, 1841, at Rambodde, Ceylon.
Son of Captain William Fisher, 78th Highlanders, A.D.C. to the
Governor of Ceylon, and Sophia, daughter of A. Lambe, of New Bond
Street, and granddaughter of Alderman Boydell. His godmother
was Lady Wilmot Horton, wife of the Governor of Ceylon ; and his
godfather Sir Robert Arbuthnot, Commanding the Forces in Ceylon.
r
Entered the Royal Navy, June 13, 1854.
Received a nomination for the Navy from Admiral Sir William
Parker, the last of Nelson's Captains. Joined his first ship, the
" Victory," at Portsmouth, on July 12, 1854. The " Victory " was
also the last ship to fly his flag as an Admiral, October 20, 1904.
Served in Russian War, in Baltic (Medal) in " Calcutta " 84 guns.
Served in the China War, 1856-60, including the capture of Canton
and Peiho Forts. (China Medal, Canton and Taku Clasps.) Given
command of a small vessel by Admiral Sir James Hope, Commander-
in-Chief, the " Coromandel," of which he was acting Captain at the
age of 19.
Also served in "Highflyer," Captain Shadwell ; "Chesapeake,"
Captain Hilles ; and " Furious," Captain Oliver Jones, Returned
home in 1861 from the China Station.
Lieutenant, November 4, i860.
In passing for Lieutenant, he won the Beaufort Testimonial ; and
was advanced to Mate on January 25, i860, and confirmed as Lieutenant
within eleven months.
261
RECORDS
March 28, 1863.
Appointed to H.M.S. " Warrior," Captain the Hon. A. A. Cochrane,
the first seagoing ironclad, for gunnery duties. Served in her for three
and a half years.
November 3, 1866.
Appointed to the Staff of H.M.S. " Excellent," gunnery schoolship,
Portsmouth, Captain Arthur W. A. Hood,
August 2, 1869.
Promoted to Commander, and appointed to the China flagship.
September 19, 1872.
On returning from China in H.M.S. " Ocean," was appointed to
" Excellent " for Torpedo Service. Started the " Vernon " as a Torpedo
Schoolship. Visited Fiume to arrange for the purchase of the Whitehead
Torpedo.
October 30, 1874.
Promoted to Captain, and re-appointed to " Excellent " for torpedo
service and instructional duties, remaining until 1876.
November 16, 1876,
Appointed for special service in " Hercules," flagship of Vice- Admiral
the Hon. Sir James Drummond, Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean.
March 15, 1877.
Appointed Flag-Captain to Admiral Sir A. Cooper- Key, Commander-
in-Chief, North American Station, in the " Bellerophon."
June 7, 1878.
Appointed Flag-Captain to Admiral Sir A. Cooper-Key, Commanding
the Particular Service Squadron, in the " Hercules."
262
APPENDIX II
January i, 1879.
Appointed in command of the " Pallas," corvette, on Mediterranean
Station, returning home in July. President of a Committee tor the
revision of the " Gunnery Manual of the Fleet."
September 25, 1879.
Appointed Flag-Captain to Vice-Admiral Sir Leopold M'Clintock,
Commander-in-Chief, North American Station, in the " Northampton."
January 18, 1881.
Appointed to command the " Inflexible," the largest ship in the
Navy.
July II, 1882.
Took part in the bombardment of Alexandria. Afterwards landed
with the Naval Brigade at Alexandria. Arranged for the first
" armoured train," and commanded it in various skirmishes with the
enemy.
August 14, 1882.
Awarded the C.B. for service at Alexandria ; also Egyptian Medal,
with Alexandria Clasp ; Khedive's Bronze Star ; Order of Osmanieh,
3rd Class ; etc. ^
November 9, 1882.
Invalided home through illness contracted on active service.
April 6, 1883.
Appointed in command of " Excellent," gunnery schoolship.
1884.
Collaborated with Mr. W. T. Stead in the production of " The Truth
About the Navy," resulting in increased Navy Estimates and the
opening of a new era in the provision of an adequate Fleet.
263
RECORDS
November i, 1886.
Appointed Director of Naval Ordnance, occupying this post four and
a half years. Carried out the transfer of the control of naval ordnance
from the War Office to the Admiralty.
August 2, 1890,
Promoted to Rear-Admiral.
May 21, 1891.
Appointed Admiral-Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard.
Expedited the completion of the " Royal Sovereign," first of a new type
of battleships. Acted as host when the French Squadron under Admiral
Gervais visited the Dockyard, 1891,
February i, 1892.
Appointed Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, and served
in the administrations of Lord George Hamilton, Earl Spencer, and Mr-
G. J. Goschen as First Lords ; and Admirals Sir A. Hood, Sir A. H.
Hoskins and Sir F. W. Richards as First Sea Lords. During this period
the firm stand of the Admiralty Board brought about the resignation
of Mr. Gladstone, March 3, 1894.
May 26, 1894.
Appointed K.C.B.
May 8, 1896.
Promoted to Vice- Admiral.
August 24, 1897.
Hoisted his flag in H.M.S. " Renown " as Commander-in-Chief,
North American Station.
1899.
Attended the first Hague Peace Conference as Naval Delegate.
264
APPENDIX II
July I, 1899.
Appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Station, with his
flag in the " Renown," remaining in this post until June 2nd, 1902.
Admiral Lord Beresford, Second-in-Command, says of this period in
his " Memoirs " : " While Vice- Admiral Sir John Fisher was
Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, he greatly improved
its fighting efficiency. As a result of his representations, the stocks of
coal at Malta and Gibraltar were increased, the torpedo flotillas were
strengthened, and the new breakwaters at Malta were begun. Some
of Sir John Fisher's reforms are confidential ; but among his achieve-
ments which became common knowledge, the following are notable :
From a 12-knot Fleet with breakdowns, he made a 15-knot Fleet without
breakdowns ; introduced long range target practice, and instituted
the Challenge Cup for heavy gun shooting ; instituted various war
practices for of&cers and men ; invited, with excellent results, of&cers
to formulate their opinions upon cruising and battle formation ; drew
up complete instructions for torpedo flotillas ; exercised cruisers in
towing destroyers and battleships in towing one another, thereby
proving the utihty of the device for saving coal in an emergency ; and
generally carried into execution Fleet exercises based, not on tradition,
but on the probabiUties of war."
1900.
Received from the Sultan of Turkey the ist Class of the Order of
Osmanieh.
November 2, 1901.
Promoted to Admiral.
June 5, 1902.
Returned to the Admiralty as Second Sea Lord, remaining until
August 31, 1903, with Lord Selborne, First Lord, and Admiral Lord
Walter Kerr, First Sea Lord.
June 26, 1902.
Appointed G.C.B. in the Coronation Honours List.
265
RECORDS
December 25, 1902.
Launched new scheme of naval entry and education for officers,
with training colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth.
May 2, 1903.
Made his first public speech at the Royal Academy Banquet.
August 31, 1903.
Appointed Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, in order to supervise
personally the inauguration of his new education scheme at Osborne
College. Also energetically promoted the formation and development
of the first British submarine flotilla.
November 7, 1903.
Appointed member of Committee with Lord Esher and Colonel Sir
George Clarke (Lord Sydenham) to reorganise the War Office on the
lines of the Admiralty Board.
October 21, 1904.
Appointed First Sea Lord in Lord Selborne's administration, and
held this office for five years and three months, the period of his greatest
activity and his preparation for a war with Germany. Some of the
more notable of his many reforms are dealt with in his " Memories."
Also appointed, October 21, 1904, First and Principal Naval Aide-de-
Camp to King Edward VII.
December 6, 1904.
Admiralty Memorandum on the Distribution of the Fleet, introducing
nucleus crew system for ships in reserve, and withdrawing obsolete
craft from foreign stations.
January, 1905.
Committee appointed to inquire into the reorganisation of the
dockyards.
266
APPENDIX II
March 6, 1905.
Appointment of Rear- Admiral Percy Scott to newly-created post of
Inspector of Target Practice. By this and other means, including
the service of Captain J. R. Jellicoe as Director of Naval Ordnance,
the marksmanship of the Navy was vastly improved .
December 4, 1905.
Awarded the Order of Merit, and promoted by Special Order in
Council to be an additional Admiral of the Fleet, thus giving him five
more years on the active list in order to carry out his policy.
February 10, 1906.
launch of the " Dreadnought," the first all-big-gun and turbine-
driven battleship, as recommended by the Admiralty Committee on
Design presided over by the First Sea Lord (Sir John Fisher).
November, 1906.
Establishment of the Naval War College at Portsmouth.
January, 1907.
Institution of a service of Fleet Auxiliaries — ammunition and store
ships, distilling and hospital ships, fleet repair ships, fishing trawlers as,
mine sweepers, etc., etc., etc., etc.,
March, 1907.
Creation of a new Home Fleet, with the " Dreadnought " as flagship
for service in the North Sea.
August, 1907.
New scheme of advancement and pay of naval ranks and ratings
introduced.
267
RECORDS
September, 1907,
Establishment of a wireless telegraphy branch, and installation erected
on the Admiralty building.
November 9, 1907.
Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, assuring his countrymen that
they could sleep quietly in their beds, and not be disturbed by invasion
bogeys.
June, 1908.
Visited Reval with King Edward and Queen Alexandra on their
visit to the Tsar of Russia. Awarded G.C.V.O. on the conclusion of
this cruise.
June 17, 1908.
Created honorary LL.D. of Cambridge University.
June, 1909.
Entertained delegates to Imperial Press Conference at a review of
the Fleet at Spithead, and a display of submarines, etc.
December 7, 1909.
Raised to the peerage as Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, in the County
of Norfolk, after the manor bequeathed to his only son by the late
Mr. Josiah Vavasseur, C.B.
January 25, 1910.
Retired from of&ce of First Sea Lord, and was succeeded by Admiral
of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson, but remained a member of the Committee
of Imperial Defence. Recording his retirement in the First Lord's
Memorandum, dated March 4, 1910, Mr. Reginald McKenna said :
" The measures which are associated with his name and have been
adopted by several successive Governments Avill prove of far-reaching
and lasting benefit to the Naval Service and the country."
268
APPENDIX II
March lo, 1910.
Took the oath and his seat in the House of Lords.
May 24, 1912.
Visited at Naples by Mr. Churchill (the new First Lord) and Mr.
Asquith (Prime Minister),
July 30, 1912.
Appointed Chairman of the Royal Commission on Oil Fuel and Oil
Engines for the Navy.
September 7, 1914.
Appointed Honorary Colonel of the First Naval Brigade, Royal
Naval Division.
October 30, 1914.
Recalled to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord.
December 8, 1914.
Victory of Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee over Admiral Count von
Spee, due to the prompt dispatch from England of two battle-cruisers
immediately on receipt of the news of the Coronel disaster. This
was the most decisive battle of the war, the German force being prac-
tically annihilated.
January 24, 1915.
Action of Sir David Beatty off the Dogger Bank, and sinking of the
" Blucher " — another striking success of the battle-cruiser design.
May 15, 1915.
Resignation as First Sea Lord over the Dardanelles question.
July 5, 1915-
Appointed Chairman of the Board of Invention and Research.
269
RECORDS
November i6, 191 5.
First speech in House of Lords, in reference to Mr. Churchill's speech
on the previous day, following the latter 's resignation from Cabinet.
March zi, 1917.
Second speech in House of Lords, declaring his refusal to discuss
Dardanelles report during the war.
Awarded the Grand Cordon, with Paulownia, of the Japanese Order
of the Rising Sun.
May 5, 1919.
Speech at the luncheon to Mr. Josephus Daniels, U.S. Naval Secretary.
October 21 (Trafalgar Day) 19 19.
Publication of " Memories.'
December 8 (Falkland Islands Day) 1919:
Publication of " Records."
270
INDEX
INDEX
Action, 45
Adams, John Couch, 21
Admiralty House, Portsmouth,
King Edward's visit to, 24, 25
Admiralty policy : replies to
criticisms, 98 et seq.
Alcester, Lord, 30
Alderson, General, 54
Alexandria, bombardment of, 63,
256
Allan, Sir WiUiam, 8b
Allenby, Lord, 241
American advance on Verdun,
246
Animated biscuits, 8
Arabi Pasha, 30
Arbuthnot, Sir Robert, 261
Archbishop and the pack of
cards, the, 32
Armoured trains, institution of,
30
Ascension, the, 45
Asquith, Rt. Hon. H. H., 65,
179, 194, 214, 222, 242, 247,
269
Aug6, M., 69
Automatic droppmg mines tor
ocean use, 223-224
Aylesford, Lord, 3
B
Bacon, Admiral Sir Reginald,
128, 181 ; on the big gun, 204-
206
Baker, Mrs., Lord Fisher's cook,
25 ; invited to Buckingham
Palace by King Edward,
ihid,
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 56, 66,
98
Balliol College, Oxford, 2
Baltic project, the, 217 tt aeq.,
236, 241
Battle hymn of the American
Republic, the, 77, 78
Beatty, Earl, 269
Beaufort Testimonial, won by
Lord Fisher, 265
Beaumont, Admiral Sir Lewis,
30
Beilby, Sir George, 66
Benbow, Sir Henry, letter of, to
Lord Fisher, 171
Beresford, Admiral Lord Charles,
on training of officers and
men for the Navy, 167-170;
260
Bethmann-Hollweg, Herr von,
247
Bible, the, and other reflections,
38 ei seq. ; Wyclif's translation,
43 ; Tyndale's, ibid. ; Cover-
dale's, 44 ; Authorised, ibid. ;
Revised, ihid. ; Cranmer'e
" Great Bible," ibid.
Big gun, the, 204 et aeq.
Birthday Honours List a serial
novel, 73
Black, Dr. Hugh, 38, 39, 77
Boar, Mr., 128
Board of Invention and Research,
193, 269
aaooBSB
273
INDEX
Bodmin, ancestral home of the
Fishers, 3
Borden, Sir Robert, and heredi-
tary titles in Canada, 72
Borkum, 245
Bourke, Mr. Maurice, 95
Boy dell, Alderman, 1, 261
Boys, training of, for the Navy,
166
Brampton, Lord, 26, 31, 33
Brest, blockade of, 6
Bright, John, 69, 70
Claverhouae, 78
Glemenceau, M., 240
Clive, Lord, 74
Coastguard, service, the, 120 et
seq.
Coclurane, Captain the Hon. A. A.,
2B2
CoUingwood, Admiral, 90, 92
Commerce, the submarine and,
183-185
Common entry into the Navy,
156 et seq.
British submarines before and Congreve, William, 92
during the war, 186
Brodrick, Mr., 83
Browning, Sir Thomas, 201
Brutality in the Navy, former,
10
Buonaparte, Napoleon, Arch-
bishop Whately, on, 100
Bumham, the first Lord, 31, 32,
33
"Buying up opportimities," 61
et seq.
Byron, Lord, 4
Cooper-Key, Admiral Sir A., 262
Corbett, Sir Julian, 34
Comwallis, Admiral, 6, 90
Coronel, 261
Coverdale, Miles, 42, 43, 44
Cowdray, Lord, 196
Cranmer's Bible, 43, 44
Cromwell, Thomas, 42, 43, 44
Currie, General, 74
Curzon, Earl, 193
Cabman's retoit to the Admiral,
the, 52
Ceunpbell-Bannerman, Rt. Hon.
Sir Henry, 31, 32, 51, 63
Canada and hereditary titles.
Sir Robert Borden on, 73
Cape Observatory, the, 124
Capri, 41
Cawdor, Lord, 98
Cawdor memorandtim, the, 107,
117
CMlders, Rt. Hon. Hugh, 56, 139
China Seas, an Admiral's unique
manner of survejdng, 9
Chinese, the ingenious, 9
Christmas Day joys on a man-of-
war, 22
Churchill, Rt. Hon. Winston, 86,
179, 188, 191, 192. 194, 230,
269, 270
Clarke, Sir George, 269
Dalby, Prof., 193
Daniels, Mr. Josephus, 79 ; re-
port on oil -burning battleships,
203, 270
Davies, Mr., American dentist
to the Kaiser, 75
Dawson, Sir Trevor, 189
Defects and repairs, 112 ef seq.
Democracy, 69 ei seq.
Deterding, Mr., 200, 201
Devonport, Viscount, 247
Diesel, Dr., 197
Dilke, Sir C, 102
Disraeli, Mr., 20
Diving methods of the Chinese,
9
Dogger Bank, 269
** Dreadnought " and " Invin-
cible," the, 109
Dreekdnought battle cruiser, the,
232-233
Drmnolog, 78
274
INDEX
Drurmnond, Admiral the Hon.
Sir James, 262
Friedland-Eylau campaign, 221
Friend, Lord Fisher's letter to
a, 76
Fushishima, Prince, 227
E
Eardley-Wilmot, Admiral Sir
Sydney, 210
Edison, Mr., 21
Edmunds, Mr. Henry, 21, 22
Empress of Russia, Dowager, 29
" Equal opportunity for all,"
11 et seq.
Esher, Lord, 11, 63, 173, 266
Essentials of sea fighting, the,
88 et seq.
F
Falkland Islands, 66
Fisher Baronetcy, lapse of, 2
Fisher's career. Lord, synopsis of,
255 et seq.
Fisher, Sir Clement, 2, 3
Fisher, John, 2
Fisher, Rev. John, of Bodmin,
3 ; four generations of, 4
Fisher, Mr. John Arbuthnot, 5,
Fisher, Sir Robert, of Packington,
3
Fisher, Sir Robert, 4
Fisher, William, father of Lord
Fisher, 261
Fisher, Mary, wife of Lord
Aylesford, 3
Fisher motto, the, 2
Fiume, 256
" Fleet Street " conspiracy, a,
101
Foch, Marshal, 246
Forgiveness, 49
*' Free Tank Day," a, 22
Frederick the Great and the
Seven Years' War, 217, 218
Freedom of the seas nonsense,
75
French, Lord, 247
G
Gallifet, General, 31
Gard, Mr., 128
Gardiner, Mr. A. G., 11
Gaimt, John of, 96
Geddes, Sir Eric, 67, 246
German Emperor, the, 227, 230
German submarine menace, the,
65, 242
Gervais, Admiral, 264
Ginsburg, Dr., letter from Lord
Fisher to, 41
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E.,
final resignation of, 50 et seq.,
264
Goodenough, Commodore, 211
Gould, Sir F. C, 36
Goschen, Rt. Hon. G. J., 264
Gracie, Mr., 128
-Grafton, Richard, printer of the
1639 Bible, 38
Grant, Sir Hope, 17
Graves, Admiral, 7
"Great Silent Navy," the, 95,
96
Greenwich Observatory, 124
Gunboat, the use of the, 116
et seq.
G unni ng, Miss, wife of two dukes
and mother of four, 5, 6
Hadcock, Major A. G., 210,
233
Hamilton, Duke of, 5
Hamilton, Lady, 1, 6
Hamilton, Lord George, 54, 264
Hankey, Sir Maurice P. A., 173 ;
letter to Lord Fisher, 214-215 ;
letter of Lord Fisher to, 244
Hanotaux, M., 250
275
INDEX
Harcourt, Lord, 53
Harcourt, Rt. Hon. Sir William,
61, 52, 53
Hawke, Admiral, Capt. A. T.
Mahan on, 91
Hawkins, Sir Henry, see Brampton,
Lord
Hay, General, commandant of
the Hythe School of Musketry,
17, 18
Heligoland Bight, a Naval Officer,
on the battle of, 230, 245
Henderson, Wilfrid, 128
Hereditary titles out of date, 73 ;
Canada and, ibid,
Hicks-Beach, Rt. Hon. Sir
Michael, 51
Hillea, Captain, 261
Hole, Dean, 65
Hood, Captain Arthur W. A.,
262
Hood, Sir H., 262, 264
Hope, Sir James, 14, 15, 261
Hopkins, Sir John, 170 ; letter
of, to Lord Fisher, ibid.
Horton, Lady Wilmot, 4, 261
Hoskins, Sir A. H., 264
Hostile submarines, 183
House of Lords, Lord Fisher's
speech in, November, 1915, 86 ;
March 21, 1917, 87
How the Great War was carried
on, 64 et seq.
Howe, Julia Ward, 77
Hunger and thirst the way to
Heaven, 10
Huxley, T. H., 42 .
Hythe School of Musketry, the,
17
Incarnation of Revolution, Lord
Fisher as the, 20
Inge, Dean, 28, 47, 48
Ireland under military law, 31
Jackson, Sir Henry, 128
Jellicoe, Viscoimt, 128, 214, 215,
223, 226, 242, 243, 247, 267
JofEre, General, 247
*' Jolly and Hustle," 68 e< acq.
Jonah's Gourd, 97 et seq.
Jones, Captain Oliver, 16, 16, 17,
261
K
Keble, John, 19
Kelvin, Lord, 21, 61, 62, 63
Kerr, Lord Walter, 265
Kiel Canal, 214, 236, 237, 240
King Edward, 4, 24 ; charac-
teristic thoughtfulness of, 26-
27 ; his friendship for Sir Henry
Campbell -Bannerman, 32; 67,
60, 180, 227, 266, 268
King WUliam IV, 1
Kitchener, Lord, 64, 229, 243,
247
Knollys, Lord, 24
Knox, Sir Ralph, 65
Krupp, 196, 197, 199
Labouchere, Mr. Henry, 31, 32
Larobe, A., grandfather of Lord
Fisher, 261
Lambe, Sophia, mother of Lord
Fisher, 261
Lane, Jane, 2
Latimer, Bishop, 211
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 73
Law, Rt. Hon. Bonar, 244
League of Nations nonsense, 76
Lectures to officers of the Fleet,
89 e^ seq.
" Let 'em all come," 81
Leth bridge. Captain, 11
Leverrier, Urbain, 21
Lloyd George, Rt. Hon., 77 ; letter
from Lord Fisher to, 222-223 ;
230
Lloyd's, 125
Lochee, Lord, see Robertson, Mr.
Edmund
276
INDEX
"Loop Detection" scheme, the, Morley, Lord, "Life of Glad-
67 stone," 50
Lord Mayor's Banquet 1907, the. Motto, a Fisher, 2
Lord Fisher's speech at, 83
Lorebiim, Lord, 31
Lucy, Sir Henry, 36, 37
N
M
M'Clintock, Admiral Sir Leopold,
263
McCrea, Admiral, 59
MoKechnie, Sir James, 189
McKenna, Rt. Hon. Reginald,
268
McTjaughlin, A. C, Professor of
History at Chicago, 69, 73,
74
Madden, Admiral, 128
Mahan, Capt. A. T., 90, 91 ; on
Nelson, 135
Marienbad, 29, 30, 32, 34, 36
Marlborough, Duke of, 74
Masterton-Smith, Sir J. E., 34
Memorandum on " OU and its
Fighting Attributes," 200
Men, training of, for the Navy,
166
Mercantile Marine, the, 125
Midleton, Lord, see Brodrick,
Mr,
Midshipman and the Admiral,
the, Mr. A. G. Gardiner's story
of, 11, 12
Midshipmen's food, 6
Midshipmen past and present,
comparison between, 7, 8
Miller, Captain, 11
MitoheU, Dr. Weir, 46
Mons, 246
*' Monstrous " cruisers, the, 230,
232
Montecuccoli, Admiral Count,
Austrian Minister of Marine,
180
Moresby, Admiral J., 248
Morley, Rt. Hon. John, on
the Navy, 1893, 135
Napoleon, 74, 129; Friedland-
Eylau campaign, 221 ; 231
Napoleon III, 179
Nargen, Island of, 8
National Lifeboat Institution as
substitute for Coastguard, 123
Naval base reforms, 249 et eeq.
Naval candidate's essay, a, 171-
172
Naval captain and cavalry colonel,
17
Naval education, 156 et seq.
Naval officer, a, on the battle of
Hehgoland Bight, 230
Navigation, ignorance of, in the
Navy, 19
Navy, common entry into, 156
et seq.
Navy in the war, the, 225 et
seq.
Nelson, 1, 6, 19, 81, 83, 129,
231, 232 ; Capt. A. T. Mahan
on, 135 ; at Toulon, 136
Northbrook, Lord, 30
Nucleus crews, 147
O
Observatories, 124 et seq.
Obsolete vessels, ptirging the
Navy of, 139 et seq.
Officers, training of, for the Navy,
166; Lord Charles Beresford
on, 167-170
Oil and oU engines, 189 ei seq.
on-burning battleships, Mr. Jose-
phus Daniels' report on, 203
Organisation for war, 133
277
INDEX
Oabome system of Naval educa-
tion, 7, 157, 248
" Out of date " fighting ships,
130
Paganini, 164
Page-Roberts, Dr., Dean of Salis-
biuy, 49
Pakenham, Admiral, 110, 208
Parker, Admiral Sir William,
last of Nelson's captains, nomi-
nates Lord Fisher for the
Navy, 4, 261
Parkes, Mr. Oscar, 208
PtkTsons, Hon. Sir Charles, 66,
197
Peace, 74, 75
Pechili, Gulf of, 16
Penniless, friendless and forlorn.
Lord Fisher's entry into the
Navy, 10
Plumer, General, 173
Pope, the, and Tyndale, 43, 44
Pre-war prophecy, a, 227
Public speeches, 79 e^ seq.
Purging the Navy of obsolete
vessels, 139 et seq.
Redmond, William, 31
Redundant dockyard workmen,
discharge of, 56, 57
Resentment, 46
Retrospect, a (July, 1906), 160
et seq.
Reval, 260
Rhodes, Cecil, 28
Richards, Sir Frederick, 50, 51 ;
cabman's retort to, 52 ; 264
Ridley, Bishop, 211
Riga, 236
Ripon, Lord, 53
Roberts, Lord, 36
Robertson, Mr. Edmund, 98,
101 n.
Robertson, Rev. F. W., of
Brighton, 46, 47, 49
Robertson, Sir W., 247
Rombulow-Pearse, Lieut., 159
Royal Academy Banquet, 1903,
the. Lord Fisher's speech at,
79
Royal Dutch-Shell Combination,
the, 201
Royal Marines, Lord Charles
Beresford on the, 168-169
Rozhdestvensky, Admiral, 207
Rumbold, Sir H. G. M. (Ambas-
sador at Vienna), 31, 33
Russell, Lord, 31, 32, 33
Russian catastrophe, the reason
of the, 228
Russian War, the, 1854-5, 8
Queen Alexandra, her kindly dis-
position, 26; 28, 29, 268
Queen Elizabeth, 135
Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, 34
Queen Victoria, 30, 65
B
Rambodde, Ceylon, Lord Fisher's
birthplace, 255
Redesdale, Lord, 25, 26
Redmond, John, 31
S
Saintly Naval captain, a, 12,
13, 14
Salisbury, Lord, 54, 65, 88
Salt-beef snuH-box, a, 10
Samuel, Sir Marcus, 193
Sankey, Mr., 77
Satanic captain, a, 15
Scapa Flow, 225-226, 243
Schwab, Mr., 187
Schwarzhoff, General Gross von,
55
Science, contempt for, in the
Navy, 19
278
INDEX
Scott, Admiral Percy, 80, 81,
267
Sea of Japan, battle of. 111
Sea-giill, a delicacy, 16
Secrecy and secretiveness, 93
et seq.
Selborne, Lord, 101 ; letter of
Sir John Fisher to, 127 ; 265,
266
Seven Years' War, the, 217,
218 222
Shadwell, Captain, 12, 13, 14,
261
Shadwell, Sir Lancelot, last
Vice-Chancellor of England, 12
Shand, Lord, 31, 33
Shipbiiilding and dockyard
workers, 56 et seq.
Siegel, Admiral von, 65
" Sleep quiet in your beds,"
speech at Lord Mayor's banquet,
1907, 86
Smith, Rt. Hon. W. H., 54
*' SnaU and Tortoise Party," the,
212
Snuff-box of salt beef, 10
Some predictions, 211
** Sow the North Sea with mines,"
Lord Fisher's advice in 1914,
237-239
Spee, Admiral von, 66, 206,
232, 233, 269
Spencer, Earl, 50, 61, 62, 264
Spencer, Herbert, 42
Staal, M. de, 55
Standard Oil Trust, America,
201
State education in the Navy,
160-162
Stead, Mr. W. T., 62, 63, 65;
on Lord Fisher's great naval
reforms, 253 et seq. ; 263
Stewart, Mr., " Jolly and Hustle,"
61
Stolypin, M., 222
Sturdee, Admiral Sir Doveton,
269
Submarine boat, the, 82
Submarine and commerce, the,
183-185
Submarines, 173 et seq.
Submarines and oil fuel, 179-181
Submarines, British, before and
during the war, 186
Subsidiary services of war, 148
et seq.
Swan, Mr., inventor of the incan-
descent light, 21
Sydenham, Lord, see Clarke, Sir
George.
Sylt, 245
T
Taylor, Bishop Jeremy, 46
Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, Sir Eus-
tace, 208
Tepl, monks' colony at, 29
Thackeray, 79
" The World, the Flesh, and the
Devil," 33
Thomson, Sir J. J., O.M., 65
Thurlow, Major, 1
Thursfield, Mr, J. R., 160
Tirpitz, Admiral von, 225, 247
Titles, hereditary, and Canada,
73
Togo, Admiral, 110, 174, 207,
226, 227
Training of boys for the Navy,
166
Training of men for the Navy,
166 ; Lord Charles Beresford
on the, 167-170
Training of officers for the Navy,
166, 167-169
Tsar of Russia, 268
Tweedmouth, Lord, 98, 101 n.
Twiss, General, 89
Two -Power standard, the, 13,
105
Tyndale, John, 42, 43, 44
U
Uruguay, 119
Use of the gunboat, the, 116
e2 seq.
279
INDEX
Vavasseur, Mr. Josiah, 268
Verdtm, 6 ; American advance
on, 246
"Victory," the, Lord Fisher's
first and last ship, 4, 5
Villeneuve, Admiral, 89
Vladivostok, 110, 111
W
War, organisation for, 133
War, subsidiary services of, 148
et aeq.
Warsaw, Napoleon at, 129
Watch, a historic, 3
Watson, Sir William, 78
Way to Victory, the, Lord Fisher's
letters to the Prime Minister,
234-236
Wellington, Lord, 74
Wesley, John, 46
Whately, Archbishop, 99, 100
Whitchurch, Edward, printer of
the 1539 Bible, 38
Whitehead torpedo, 177, 262
Wilson, Sir Arthur, 268
Wilson, President, 77
Winchester, Bishop of, 114
Wireless Telegraphy, 82
Wotton, Sir Henry, 34
Wyclif, John, 42, 43
Yamamoto, Admiral, 226
Yates, Edmund, 31, 32
Youthful midshipmen, advantage
of 5 7 ; arduous Uves of, 6
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